You don’t need to be an economist to understand how our current economic system is failing us.
Everyday we hear new stories locally and globally about rising unemployment rates, the widening gap between the rich and the poor, child poverty, terrorism and climate change.
In 2009, UK researchers Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett published what has been called a ‘sweeping theory of everything’ in their ground-breaking book The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. Their work shows that levels of inequality significantly impact each of the following eleven different health and social problems: physical health, mental health, drug abuse, education, social mobility, trust and community life, violence, teenage pregnancies and children well-being. They argue that this inequality has eroded trust, increased anxiety and illness, and encouraged excessive consumption. Unfortunately, this is a global concern and outcomes are significantly worse in greater unequal societies.
Why do we live in world where 1 billion people wake up hungry? What have we proposed as solutions for this massive inequity? It seems to me that our well-intended solutions to date have allowed these levels of inequity to increase. But why?
Our society has grown to be very good at developing interventions, projects and programs to solve some of these pervasive social and health issues arising from our modern economical structures. In fact, the Honorable Monique Bégin, one of the champions of the Canada Health Act (known globally for the early foundations of a just and equitable health care system) has recognized that we live in a country of perpetual pilot projects that rarely move towards system change.
The current system has also isolated our advocacy efforts to address these social and health-related issues. For instance, recent activity in relation to violence prevention is a good example of how various efforts and resources are channelled to create awareness campaigns or community projects, without consideration of the collective impact of these often isolated initiatives. How can we eradicate violence if we are not addressing the complex, yet modifiable social, political, economic and environmental factors that are at its core?
We can’t rely on siloed approaches or interventions that target individual problems. How can we transform the way in which we view the root causes of these systemic issues?
If we look upstream for the ultimate cause of the economic crisis that is tearing so many lives apart, we find an illusion: the belief that money-a mere number created with a simple accounting entry that has no reality outside the human mind- is wealth. Because money represents a claim on so many things essential to our survival and well-being, we easily slip into evaluating economic performance in terms of the rate of financial return to money, essentially the rate at which money is growing, rather than by the economy’s contribution to the long-term well-being of people and nature (David C. Korten, 2009).
Fortunately, a global movement has emerged to change the measuring stick and the bar on how we measure progress that challenge the current economic system and GDP standards. New ways are emerging everyday. In essence, we are already creating a collective systemic shift towards wellbeing. In addition to the new measurement systems prioritizing quality of life, environmental sustainability, and corporate social responsibility, some governments are understanding that they need to invest in wellbeing. In fact, the British government recently announced a What Works Centre for Wellbeing, with initial funding of £3.5 million over three years to investigate the determinants of wellbeing and how to improve it. The business community is also very interested in how wellbeing of employees can improve the bottom line and there is a growing body of psychological and economic evidence around individual wellbeing.
However, in order for the shift towards wellbeing to reach the tipping point, we cannot continue to work in isolation from one another. We cannot address issues of inequity if we continue to work from old paradigms that reward competition and self –interests in pursuit of economic prosperity, as proposed by the 18th century priviledged western men who laid the foundations of the free market economic theory. Why not question these outdated theories that are not serving us today?
What if we shifted to a new paradigm that creates space for all of us to belong, and for sectors to come together? What if we prioritized caring, collaboration, empathy and compassion for one another, and importantly for ourselves.
Transformation starts with each and everyone of us, right now. However, a shift towards well-being and equity also means we need to create a space for women to lead us into the future before us. On this International Women’s day, I celebrate all women. I am grateful to those who came before us, who fearlessly fought for our right to vote and opened doors to higher education and the workforce, so that I can be writing these lines today. I am grateful for all those advocating for equal pay today and for the girls who are becoming the women of the future, with new ways of being, and new ways of creating wellbeing for all.
I can see a future where we all have opportunities to flourish, in a planet that is flourishing. Do you?
Paola Ardiles, Founder, Bridge for Health
