Can we use GDP to measure the economy of meaning. My talk at the OECD / SURS Round Table on the Measurement and Use of Data on Social Progress and People’s Well-Being

1. Dr. Žiga Turk
“Beyond GDP” or
“GDP and Beyond”
Round Table on the Measurement and Use of Data
on Social Progress and People’s Well-Being
Conference Centre Brdo, Slovenia,
29 November 2010

2. Contents
• The 5 “ABCDE” global transformations are a
challenge for policy makers.
– Abundance makes us think that money (GDP) isn’t
everything
• There are reasons to look beyond GDP
– and see why Slovenia was overtaken by Czech
Republic
• There are reasons to keep GDP
– it is the GDP Euros that pay for many things

3. ABCDE of grand transformations
• Automation and abundance
• BRICs and globalization
• Climate change and energy
• Demography
• E-everything

4. A detailed look at A: abundance

5. Our industrial model: people work

6. … so that they
can buy a car.

7. The idea worked for a long time!

8. But now some can produce but do not
spend

9. Leading to abundance of products and
information in the developed world

10. Solution: to those who already have a
car also sell a motorbike!

11. “What we sell is the ability for a 43-year-old accountant
to dress in black leather, ride through small towns
and have people be afraid of him”.
Actually they are not in a business of
selling bikes!

12. Plain Design Award
Few are in a business of selling function.
They sell meaning!

13. Plain Fair-traded
Some sell coffee, some sell a good feeling.

14. Some sell cleaners and some let us do
something for the environment.

15. Can we measure the economy of
meaning with GDP?

16. Some would
say money
does not
make you
more happy
(and life
more
meaningful)
and
move beyond
GDP
Source: Economist

17. But some
say a dollar
is worth
more to the
poor than to
the rich.
log($) does
makes
people
happy.
Source: Economist

18. But we do not have
money!

19. So there are reasons to look at
GDP and beyond
• economy, consumers are looking beyond the
functional and the material
• when you are reasonably well of it takes a lot
more money to be a little happier
• because of the crisis right now we do not have
the money

20. And there are good reasons not to
look only beyond GDP
• we have a crisis because the GDP is down,
not because people are unhappy!
• we can define:
– good times “joy-less outnumber the job-less”
– bad times “job-less outnumber the joy-less”
• which would you rather have?

21. In Slovenia we always thought we are
better than any of the former communist
countries

22. So this was a shock:

23. Where?
0,828
0,931
0,782 0,78
0,841
0,901
0,87
0,76
HDI Health Education Income
Slovenia Czech Rep.

24. So there are messages for
policymakers beyond the GDP, but
• your % of GDP for healthcare are GDP Euros.
• your % of GDP for education are GDP Euros.
• your % of GDP for research and development
are GDP Euros.
• you will be paying off your debt with GDP
Euros

25. THE END

26. Credits & Inspiration
• Images:
– Google Picture Search
– Flickr
– Wikipedia
– Economist
• Inspiration
– Reflection Group on the Future of Europe
– Stephane Garelli
– Daniel Pink