Marilyn Waring’s 30 Year Effort to Dismantle the GDP
Safe drinking water counts for nothing. A pollution-free environment counts for nothing. Even some people – namely women – count for nothing. This according to the United Nations System of National Accounts, the SNA, that sets the standard and imposes economic and budgetary decisions for almost 200 countries.
The SNA produce the GDP, the Gross Domestic Product that allegedly measures well being within a country. However war and catastrophes deforestation and mining show up as beneficial for the economy under the GDP.
Marilyn Waring, former New Zealand M.P., now professor of public policy at Auckland University, writer, and goat farmer, explained this in her book: Counting for Nothing. She gave a 30 year update at the University of Alberta, Canada, on November 18, 2016. This is an excerpt of her 55 minute speech.
Waring spoke at the Parkland Institute, at the University of Alberta. Parkland exists to counteract the dominance of the marketplace tat led to expanded corporate power. And to preserve the understanding of Canada as a caring and sharing society.
This is part two of a TUC Radio miniseries on Renegade Economics and how to resist the demands of permanent economic growth and protect the earth, indigenous communities, local agriculture and women.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)
