Genuine Wealth: Building Economies of Well-Being (Essay‪)‬

Robert Kennedy, in one of his last public speeches in 1968, noted that "Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things." He went on with a stinging critique of the primary measure of economic progress--the Gross National Product (GNP) or Gross Domestic Product (GDP)--stating unequivocally that it inappropriately counts environmental pollution, advertising for cigarettes, the building of weapons of mass destruction, and the cost of clearing our highways of the carnage from auto crashes as "economic progress" yet fails to account for the strength of our marriages, the joy of our children's play and the integrity of our public officials and intelligence of our public debate. He concluded by stating "It [the GNP] measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile." It's tough following in the footsteps of Dr. David Suzuki who gave us such an impassioned presentation and vision for a sustainable future. I am pleased that I was a key contributor to the development of the David Suzuki Foundation's Sustainability Within a Generation document that David referred to in his speech. In this important document, authored by David Boyd (2006), the vision for sustainability presented is founded on a key principle I have called "genuine wealth" (Anielski, 2004). I will speak to the importance of building economies of well-being and, in particular, cities and communities that are founded on the principles of genuine wealth.