Gross Domestic Happiness? Why the French want to redefine economic growth.

The Wall Street Journal ^ | September 29, 2009 | Brian Domitrovic

[sbpublicaffairs]

Gross Domestic Happiness? Why the French want to redefine economic growth. French President Nicolas Sarkozy recently said he wanted the nations of the world to stop using GDP, or gross domestic product, as the main measure of their economic performance. He wants them instead to work up another metric that takes into account not only economic production but such things as environmental quality and even time not spent in traffic—a sort of gross national satisfaction index. France has excellent reason to suppress GDP statistics. Since 1982, among developed nations, France has been a clear laggard in GDP growth. Mr. Domitrovic teaches at Sam Houston State University. He is author of "Econoclasts: The Rebels Who Sparked the Supply-Side Revolution and Restored American Prosperity," just out from ISI Books.

[DonaldC]

This is like not giving grades in school, or weighting stuff like self esteem.

[50sDad]

This is on par with ceasing to count goals when your team is really killing the other guys (a stupidity I have seen first hand at my daughter's soccer games.) Because, you know, in the real world, your economic or political rival will ease up on you when they know they've got you pinned.

[/SARCASM]

[B-Chan]

I think he’s right. There’s more to success than making money or buying a boat. Work is fine in its place, but a man is not an ant. We should work to live, not live to work.

I’m with Sarkó on this one.

[TSgt]

I think he’s right. There’s more to success than making money or buying a boat. Work is fine in its place, but a man is not an ant. We should work to live, not live to work.

I work with the French and they are truly clueless lazy people.

Having said that, I agree with you 100% and would work for less pay if I had more time off. I would be willing to say that most companies in America could actually cut costs and increase productivity if they offered their employees the option of less pay with more time off or performance/deliverable based compensation. Don't pay people for how much time their butt occupies a chair, pay them by the deliverable.