A Life of Hardships?

According to the French economist, periods of economic recession are an exception in history, the norm being economic growth. From 1950 to 2000, GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita has almost tripled in the US and Britain, and it has almost increased fourfold in France and Germany.



What this really means is that the rise in GDP is irrelevant, just like the rise in the standard of living, except for those situations when some historic catastrophe occurs, like a world war, for instance.



Professor Fitoussi refers to an article written in 1928 by the celebrated British economist John Maynard Keynes, who claimed that the index of economic growth would increase by an average of 2 percent a year. At that rate one’s income would increased eightfold in a century.



Despite the interruption to growth brought about by the advent of two cataclysmic world wars, facts have largely proved Keynes right. According to the British economist, by becoming 8 times richer, we would have greater means to satisfy our primary needs, and we would consequently have more freedom and opportunities to concentrate our energies to improving the quality of life.



Even if things came to worst (in the economic sense) or close to it, our grandchildren would still ‘only’ be 5 or 6 times wealthier than we are! What word should we use for this improvement of ‘only’ 5 or 6 times in the standard of living? Poverty, ill-fortune? How did this anxiety and negative thinking creep into our hearts and minds? How is it that, despite all the appalling misery and poverty in the Third World, we are so inconsiderate as to say that our children will live a life of hardships?



Jean-Paul Fitoussi talks about the importance of concentrating our energies to improving the quality of our lives. But what do we mean by this word, ‘quality’? Does it refer to the capacity to change our car every year, buy an new cell phone every month, double all the useless objects in our homes or claim more holiday time? Or does the word ‘quality’ refer to less tangible realities, like the capacity to strengthen the bonds of love and affection between spouses, or to help our children avoid spiritual pitfalls like alcohol, drugs and violence?



When will we learn to fight the good fight? That is, to work for a society where respect for the dignity of the human being, education and solidarity are priorities, rather than to pamper and indulge all our whims and caprices? When will we be mature enough to have a society that emphasises the dimensions of the soul over those of the body?



Sorry, but I dare say that it matters little to me whether the standard of living rises by 6 or 8 percent. I am rather much more concerned by the increase in dysfunctional families, the sharp rise in the number of alienated young people, the crisis in schools and education, the breakdown of law and order, the loss of regard for the weakest sectors of society – women, children, the elderly, and the disabled, and finally, the loss of meaning in life. What does it profit us to improve our standard of living if we lose our spiritual values?