MEASURING ECONOMIC WELL-BEING By using Gross Domestic Product as the main indicator of well-being, many important factors are neglected. As defined in the New Merriam-Webster Dictionary, well-being is the state of being happy, healthy, or prosperous (1989, p.831). Economically, perhaps the only relevant state under the definition is prosperity, but in reality happiness and health have a great impact on well-being, significant enough to be recognized even when focusing mainly on wealth in numbers. If society hopes to have a more accurate and complete indication of well-being, globally or nationally, a new system of measurement must be developed, leaving GDP to its original function of totaling the dollar value of all domestically-produced goods and services sold over a period of time.One of the most important factors that is not presently acknowledged when calculating well-being the affects of pollution and natural resource depletion. The land is the most basic foundation for virtually every good produced and needless to say, once it has been stripped of its raw materials, the consequences will resound globally. Damage to our environment adversely affects each aspect of well-being: health, happiness and prosperity. We cannot hope to be healthy without clean air and water, nor can we hope to be prosperous without the materials needed to make goods. And we most certainly cannot hope to be happy when everything around us is sick, stagnant and useless. Unfortunately, GDP actually considers the activities which create pollution as gains to well-being. Another neglected factor that needs to be recognized when measuring well-being is the value of tasks performed at home and in the community, in which no money is exchanged but countless hours are spent organizing and maintaining. Such simple tasks as gardening or enjoying a block picnic in the neighbourhood park surely add to well-being, as do the jobs of child-rearing and elder care, in which...
