...but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
REMARKS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, MARCH 18, 1968
Robert F. Kennedy
University of Kansas
March 18, 1968
(Above...ignorant commentary below)...
I believe that looking at Gross Domestic Product as a metric is asinine and counterproductive. The true metric is quality of life and NOT measured from the ivory towers or gilded mansions, but from the bottom-up. From the homeless veteran and hopeless addict's chances for recovery or for a helping hand up. From the least among us, as the Gospels of Jesus make CLEAR and the gospels of prosperity distort and abuse. From the founders to the foundering, from the bottom to the middle and then to the top... The United States of America stands firm as the greatest ideal in human history for governance and self-rule of the people, by the people and for the people.
GDP is simply another way to avoid talking about the ways that product and bounty is distributed and how it is used to help ALL citizens, not just the lucky ones who manage to momentarily rent more material possessions than others (and when they lay dying and their heirs are counting the breaths until they can evict them from renting those possessions, so that they may horde them unto themselves next - then they will know at the last what greed begets - more greed and strife and no eternal glory). The measure of any society for its value to its citizens is not how well protected the privileged are, but how well assisted the lowest are. By that metric, the current USA is the very definition of a 'shit hole' country...but one that can be rescued still.
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