Publication Source: Winnipeg Sun
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Author: Elizabeth May
Re ‘Wrong by any measure,’ John Robson, June 25.
John Robson seems to think my private member’s bill for a Genuine Progress Index is something I invented. In fact, the growing call for more meaningful indices of progress has been championed by Nobel Prize winners in economics Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen.
Their report, originally commissioned by the former Conservative government of France, has now been supported by the OECD.
Contrary to the impression created by your columnist, the idea is not fanciful, nor designed to measure happiness. It is designed to avoid the mistake of failing to measure natural capital, such that the last cod harvested off Newfoundland and Labrador in 1993 registered as positive to the GDP — even as 30,000 people were thrown out of work and the fishery was shut down.
Elizabeth May
Green Party Leader