Focusing on Citizens’ Well-Being

There is an enormous quantity of good taking place around the globe that, sadly, is obscured by the president-day U.S. political circus and its criminal buffoon ring leader. In particular, many of the world’s developed countries are examining their priorities to ensure a high quality of life for their citizens.

From this article: Prime Minister of Iceland Katrin Jakobsdottir is now urging governments to prioritize sustainability and family time over obsessing about economic growth — as most developed nations seem to do. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeion and New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern have teamed up with Iceland’s PM to promote an agenda focused on “well-being.” Jakobsdottir has called for “an alternative future based on well-being and inclusive growth.” She feels that new social indicators are needed outside of the traditional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data.

One of the things that should concern all Americans is how foreign a concept all this is.  We tend not to think in these directions at all because, we tend to be fairly indifferent to human misery.  We have a United Nations’ special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights coming to Washington, D.C., then Los Angeles, San Francisco, Alabama, Puerto Rico and finally West Virginia to understand how it’s possible that one of the wealthiest countries in the world has 40 million people living in poverty.  On an NPR interview he said:

I was looking primarily to see the relationship between the civil rights, which the United States holds so dear, and poverty. In other words, if you live in poverty in this country, can you actually enjoy the civil and political rights which you are supposedly guaranteed?

To go to Skid Row in Los Angeles, to see the extent of it, the never-ending encampments and tents, the really grim circumstances under which people live. To go to Alabama to meet with people who live in areas that have no sewerage connection, and so their sewage is basically just pumped out into their gardens. Those sorts of things have a pretty big impact.

The U.S. has caricatured narratives about the purported innate differences between the rich and poor have been sold to people by politicians in the media. The rich are industrious, entrepreneurial, patriotic and the drivers of economic success. The poor, on the other hand, are wasters, losers and scammers. So as a result, money spent on welfare is money down the drain. Money devoted to the rich is a sound investment. The reality is that the United States now has probably the lowest degree of social mobility among all the rich countries. And if you are born poor, guess where you’re going to end up – poor.

It’s both a tragedy and an embarrassment.  Of course, it takes a lot to embarrass an American these days.