YakShaving

Wealth & Politics Panel:

Gregg Easterbrook
Hazel Henderson

*   Milton Friedman (who just passed away recently) was the first to hold the notion that standard measurements of economics only tell half the story.
*   Hazel Henderson grew up in patriarchal society (Britain) and realized that her mother was producing the basic fabric of wealth– but was not contributing to any economic indicator.
*  The primary problem with wealth and traditional economics is that economists confuse MONEY and WEALTH!!
*  Its interesting that in the information economy, we claim that “ information = money “… and yet a focus on money evokes a fear of scarcity… but a focus on information evokes feelings of abundance and sharing.
*  The “love” economy accounts for about 60-70% of the real economy whereas
*  Traditional invisible hand economics suggest that competition
*  We as Americans are reasonably secure in our material circumstances and have plenty of surplus.   This allows us to be more individualistic and personal… But this also means that we are more prone to be depressed.   During the world wars, great depression, and trying to land a man on the moon, we had a common shared mission as a nation.   Today, we lack this same unifying mission.
*  We’ve realized in the last 20 years that we need a balanced scorecard approach to  quality of life indicators other than economic (financial) alone.
*  Gregg gave a shout out to Bhutan’s GNH (Gross National Happiness) model, which I blogged about before– I believe this model is fantastic.
*  It has been shown that women entrepreneurs are greater givers to charity than male entrepreneurs.    Also there’s a recent case study that mentioned that companies with more women managers at the top outperformed other companies with mostly male senior management.   The emergence of women in the workplace, it is estimated, has created more economic value than the industrialization of China.   (Dang!)
***  I loved this one:  Hazel and Gregg both argued that it is impossible to manage complex problems with a single discipline.   They emphasized the importance of system thinking and multi-disciplinary collaboration, just like the Biomimetics speakers did.   Aha!  The design planner’s raison d’être.    It is a good day, folks.
*  We need to stop supporting the ideological invisible hand theories
*  World public opinion can absolutely drive corporate profit.   It is possible to lose social mandate very easily– This  is why CEOs are starting to recognize the importance of CSR.
*** Another important note!!    Just because there are indicators other than monetary that can measure progress, it doesn’t mean they are all qualitative!   (This was news to me, of course).    Turns out a group of statisticians came up with a list of 12 quantitative metrics that defined quality of life.
*  Positive psychology:    Psychologists have determined that three characteristics of stress free people are:  forgiveness, optimism, and gratitude.  This is *not* altruistic polyanna.   This is the same reason why people who volunteer their services feel happier in life.  
*  Check this on Wikipedia:   Revolutionary Wealth, Wealth of Networks.  Shows us how we can increase wealth in the “Love economy”.

***  The field of design is dedicated to human possibility — Gregg Easterbrook

Add to interesting book list:

The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse