What gets measured gets managed?
Capital, economics and sustainability
Imagine the scene: you received a postcard with a picture of your front door and the writing said ‘We Want What You Have’. What would you do? What would you think it was about? What if, week after week, the postcards kept coming… with images of your house from different angles… What would you do then? What would you think then? This is the central provocation posed by the satirical novel Capital by John Lanchester published in 2012, later adapted to the screens by BBC in 2015 and available on Netflix since 2016.
In our neoliberal capitalist world, MONEY is often the answer to Lanchester’s provocation. We have been taught (or I’d say brainwashed) by our education system that MONEY moves the world. Even ‘time is money’, or so they say. Money has become such a thing that what I would consider a surreal scene actually happened on my doorstep: A dad picking up his five-year-old son from school and asking: ‘What did you learn in your finance class today?’. The answer: ‘I learned about MONEY’. Who has put money into the curriculum of a five-year-old?
The problem is, As Kate Raworth points out in her book, Doughnut Economics (2017), the more we study the rational economic man, the more we behave like the image of him: ‘Money is his hand, a calculator in his head, ego in his heart and nature at his feet, hates work, loves luxury, has insatiable wants and knows the price of everything’.
Not surprisingly, ‘We Want What You Have’ prompts people to consider what they have that might be stolen from them. If it is something that valuable, I surely would not give it away out of my free will. BUT, what if what we have the most valuable is something that can’t be stolen from us? What if our focus and measurement of money have been wrong all along?
After the financial crash, in 2008, Buthan gave this question some thought and decided to measure something else. Instead of focusing purely on money through measuring the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), Buthan adopted Gross National Happiness (GNH), which goes beyond areas of socioeconomic concern such as living standards, health and education and even considers aspects of culture, community vitality and psychological wellbeing. Fifteen years on, unprecedented emigration and high youth unemployment cast doubt on the Buthan’s happiness-based economic approach.
Here in the UK, in 2022, economists and statisticians are scrambling their heads to come up with alternative ways to measure development beyond GDP. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has created what they call inclusive income indicators. To capture the broader nature of economic production from both paid activity (contained in GDP) and other (predominantly unpaid) activity, ONS has come up with two measurements with sustainability included in its formula: Gross inclusive income (GII) and Net inclusive income (NII). Although the work is in its infancy and still classed as experimental, and GDP is expected to remain the economic benchmark for the near future, the mere existence of an Inclusive Income and Wealth team within ONS is a reason to celebrate.
Walk the talk
The picture I chose for this post was not of a front door (like the ones in the book). Instead, I chose the picture of a wild branches bouquet pruned from a bush in my garden that would otherwise have gone to the compost bin. I could not allow myself to throw away such beautiful branches. It would have been a wasted opportunity. There were so many branches that I did four bouquets: one for the Ocado Delivery driver, one for my neighbour, one for the cleaner and one for me.
In our busy lives, people would say I don’t have time for this. And partially yes, it is a luxury. Not everyone has a garden let alone can make time to look after it. Yet, many others who have gardens often don’t make time to care for it.
Because it was free, many would say the bouquets were worthless. However, because it was made sustainably, not wasting resources, and with love, I would say it has immense value. The smiles and appreciation of the recipients showed they valued it too. The contact with nature when pruning the branches, and the sight of my bouquet that lasted over two weeks gave me immense pleasure and helped with my wellbeing.
Each of us has a role in changing the current thinking. I am doing all I can to move from words into action. If you are interested in knowing more and discussing how this all relates to you, give me a shout.