Money, Politics, and Happiness

A major problem with America is how we measure our total net worth. The gross national product system, or G.N.P for short, is used because it signifies the amount of money made by American companies overall, not just within national boundaries. This way an American company that outsources in Bangladesh can have their profits totaled up with the rest of America’s profits. It is used because it makes it look like America earns more than it actually does. After all, only the high level executives are the American’s earning money. However, this may not be the case. The American company does not have to be owned by an American. An American company owned by a Japanese company that outsources its work to Indonesia would still have its profits added to America’s G.N.P.

Another drawback of G.N.P. is that it measures everything as a positive. Let’s say that there was an oil spill and it took roughly $20 million to clean up. That money would be added to the G.N.P. – raising it by $20 million. To me, that goes beyond the realm of being counterintuitive and into the realm of absurdity. The government is spending money, yet it records it as a profit.

As I stated in an entry before this one, Americans have to relinquish their obsession for money and start doing things that make sense. Why would anyone actively try to prevent environmental disasters if the money spent fixing the damage is just going to make it look like America made more money than it did? It is a fact that the happiness of Americans peaked in the 1950’s. That’s at a point in time when American’s had far less material objects than they do now, yet they were happier. The average American today believes that money will bring happiness. This is an illusion – we only want what we cannot have. Once we have something, we toss it into the corner and think about the other things we don’t yet have. So wouldn’t it be more desirous for Americans to want something that is hard to achieve such as love, happiness, and reversing the negative affects we’ve caused to the environment? It would take a lot longer to achieve than standing in line and paying a few hundred dollars for a new gadget and the benefits would last a lifetime.

The solution is to start using a method to measure our national profit that uses both positives AND negatives. That way we have a true sense of how much we’re making. After all, all we’re doing is lying to ourselves when we present that number as a profit. Adding negatives into the mix lowers our numbers, but gives America more motivation to make more money and reduce the negatives i.e. things that affect the environment negatively. This alone may be the push America needs to start combating global warming, the use of dangerous chemicals, and the use of nonrenewable resources. If more money won’t motivate our money-obsessed country, then I don’t know what will.