Cutbacks
Based on Mistaken Premise!
- If We Don't Change Direction,
- We'll End Up Where We're Going!
Cut back, downsize, do we really think it's wise?
It has the ring of a skipping song that children might sing at play,
but we must answer with their future.
Cost cutting has gone on for years and is becoming particularly ominous
as it eats more deeply into education and puts health care and pensions
on the menu.
It may be a huge mistake to disassemble society
in order to stimulate growth!
Apologetically we are told that costs have to be cut and efficiency
increased. We have to keep growing to stay afloat in the global economy.
We should question this doctrine. Is it efficient to put people out
of work to increase profits? Would it be efficient to involve everyone in
our mutual provision? How far can we grow in a world that is already stretching
the limits of natural resources and the environment's ability to absorb
waste?
What are we growing for? The GDP, the official measure of well-being
that we are supposed to increase, is a badly flawed indicator. When fouled
air and polluted water make people sick, their medical bills and bottled
water increase the GDP. When stolen goods are replaced, the GDP goes up,
as it does when we employ more police and build new prisons. When natural
disasters strike, the stock market responds positively on the expectation
that money will flow as people try to rebuild their lives. Adding such expenses
to our measure of well-being says that pollution, crime and hurricanes are
good for us.
There is also much of value that the GDP does not count. The care of
our children, food preparation, household repairs and community work are
considered of no value if they are done out of love or good citizenship.
According to the GDP, we would be no worse off if they were not done at
all. In fact, if these things were not done for free, people would be forced
to pay for some of it and GDP would rise. Would we be better off?
Already, as the GDP growth vision is endlessly trumpeted, the value
system it represents is being adopted by people in their private lives.
The disillusion of families and communities testifies to its impact on our
brave new world. Given the short comings of GDP as a measure of well-being,
it may be a huge mistake to disassemble society in order to stimulate its
growth.
In his 1995 Massey Lectures, John Ralston Saul pointed out:
- "The marketplace has been constantly evoked over the last quarter-century
as the source of freedom and democracy as well as the only possible force
to lead us back to growth. But after two decades of having their way, the
exponents of this theory have no results to show us. . . . they have held
and continue to hold the levers of power, and they have not produced. This
is a very long trial period . . ."
It is time to review the values upon which public decisions are made
-- before democracy is totally usurped by market forces.
How would society differ if our goal was to strengthen communities and
achieve mutual provision from the natural resources which the Earth can
sustainably provide?
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Last Update: March 9, 1999
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