How to measure the economy more fairly

[Inkriql]

A new world emerges inexorably. While the old man resists disappearing. The idea of growth at all costs that characterizes the current economic model is being questioned both by the scientific community, as well as by multilateral organizations and some governments. The Great Recession left behind a trail of inequality that the increase in subsequent productive activity has not been able to eliminate; Global warming cracks the planet by building an increasingly worrisome future for new generations, while the technology that minimizes these two ballasts is already operational, although its impact is probably not getting as far as it should be, nor is it possible to quantify precisely. The citizens complain. Increases revolts, conflicts, discontent. And populist parties become strong in societies tired of their governments putting the economy as the faithful of the balance instead of their welfare. Tired of always winning the same.

This is the scenario that the debate on whether the gross domestic product (GDP), the standardized tool to measure the wealth of the countries, has set on the table, is the appropriate indicator to assess its progress or if another one more linked to the quality of life for governments to prepare their accounts and make the best spending decisions. A discussion that has been present this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is leading the current that puts people before numbers. "The growth measured as production and consumption is costing us very expensive", they maintain in the direction of the organism. "We cannot use GDP as the only indicator of economic progress because it has led to many distortions, such as increasing inequality in all OECD countries."

The organization led by Ángel Gurría leads the flow of inclusive growth, a more sophisticated formulation, which is based on establishing as a fundamental parameter the well-being of people in terms of disposable income, access to education, health, infrastructure, certainty in work or quality employment, among other variables. “We have to evaluate public and private investments according to a kind of checklist that indicates the natural resources that will be lost when they are made or if they will support the development of the communities. We have developed an inclusive growth framework in which we tell countries that we are not going to give up GDP because it is a standardized international measure, but it must be complemented with other indicators so that their rulers make decisions in the framework of inclusive growth and can modify them in terms of taxes, expenses or productivity depending on how they are affecting people, ”they say from the OECD.