This is the beginning of a TUC Radio mini series on how to resist the demands of permanent economic growth and protect the earth, indigenous communities, local agriculture and women. Here first is the archive edition of Who’s Counting, Marilyn Waring on sex, lies and global economics based on the audio of the film by Terre Nash.
Marilyn Waring was shocked and dismayed when she learned that all countries that are members of the UN are forced to keep their books and design their budgets under the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA). This GDP system counts only cash transactions in the market and recognizes no value other than money. This means there is no value to peace and to the preservation of the environment.
At age 22 (in 1974) Marilyn Waring became the youngest member of the New Zealand Parliament. She chaired the prestigious Public Expenditures Committee and became familiar with the Gross Domestic Product system and decided to disclose its pathologies in a film, her teachings at AUT University in Auckland and really her life as a feminist economist. The film, “Who’s Counting” traces her quest to explore how the fate of women and of the earth are impacted by the deadly pursuit of economic growth.
Marilyn Waring is best known as the author of a book on women in the world economy entitled: “If Women Counted” to this day a persuasive and vivid argument against endless economic growth.
Coming up next an update: Thirty Years Later: Are Women Still ‘Counting for Nothing’? – with Marilyn Waring.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:57 — 19.9MB)
