by frog
An Australian “public interest think-tank”, the Australian Institute, has published “a manifesto for wellbeing”, aimed at making that country a better place. The manifesto ‘s preamble reads:
Australians are three times richer than their parents and grandparents were in the 1950s, but they are no happier. Despite the evidence of a decline in national wellbeing, governments continue to put economic interests first. The obsession with economic growth means other things that could improve our wellbeing are sacrificed.
There is widespread community concern that the values of the market —individualism, selfishness, materialism, competition— are driving out the more desirable values of trust, self-restraint, mutual respect and generosity. Many people feel alienated from the political process; the main parties seem too alike and think of progress only in material terms.
The challenge of our age is to build a new politics that is committed, above all, to improving our wellbeing.
The Manifesto offers the following nine headers:
- Provide fulfilling work
- Reclaim our time
- Protect the environment
- Rethink education
- Invest in early childhood
- Discourage materialism and promote responsible advertising
- Build communities and relationships
- A fairer society
- Measure what matters (wellbeing not GDP)
All of which makes eminent sense. It’s about quality of life, stupid.
Published in Economy, Work, & Welfare | Society & Culture by frog on Mon, May 9th, 2005
Tags: environment
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
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The world as we know it is founded on debt-based economies, and as such growth is the only option.
Of course, all this growth is powered by energy, much of that is fossil fueled, join the dots…
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‘prove fulfilling work’, ‘claim back our time’. I’m sorry, what do these things mean? (No, I can’t be bothered reading it). They aren’t anything you can legislate for.
And if ‘rethink education’ means hold dance classes of expression at school, then stuff that. What exactly is the greens’ education palicy for secondary and primary level?
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maybe its a typo on your part rather than a reading mistake, but that’s “provide fulfilling work”. What does it it refer to? People should be able to work in jobs that they enjoy and that they get something out of, rather than just being wage slaves in jobs they hate.
And as for “reclaim our time” that refers to having to work less hours so that we have got more time to do family and community and exercise things. The report suggests “reducing the maximum working week to 35 hours initially” which sounds good.
You should read the manifesto, its quite short.
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I’m trying hard to “reclaim my time” this year, and have developed a helpful guiding principle: if the first 3 sentences make no sense, don’t waste your time on the rest. I applied the test to the “preamble” and it failed miserably.
Lets assume the 1st sentence phrase “they are no happier” is a fact. [According to recent published research its not, but lets assume it is.] How is this “evidence of a decline in national wellbeing”? It isn’t – people are not happier, but they’re not sadder either presumably. [Sensible authors would not have said "no happier" if they could have made the stronger statement "sadder".]
OK, maybe I’m being harsh. Lets try sentence 3. “The obsession with economic growth means other things that could improve our wellbeing are sacrificed.” These things (economic growth and wellbeing) are complements, not substitutes. We should and can enjoy them together if we’re smart. The main reason so many of us care about the environment these days is because we can afford to. Our great-grandparents did not have that luxury – they were too busy surviving.
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It was a typo. The thing is, if everyone did the job that they really wanted… then lots of things wouldn’t get done. No one really enjoys being a garbage collector. But it needs to be done.
The french working hour was 35 and it’s being changed back because of the detrimental effects it had on society. People work 40 hours because they choose to. If there was widespread distaste for the 40 hour working week, then companies would shorten it themselves, knowing it would attract more workers, and hence improve their work staff in general.
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to steve w, sorry for casting aspersions on your reading ability, and do you have some references for the French experience?
to jock – if you’re going to be that picky about the preamble then presumably you would also be that picky about the rest of the manifesto so maybe it’s not for you.
However for anyone who does like the sound of the manifesto, let your Australian friends know that they can sign it. Strength comes in numbers.
Oh and also for jock, you don’t have to be rich to care about the environment, in fact caring for the environment saves you money, e.g. if you have a rainwater tank, solar water-heating, energy efficient bulbs etc etc you will pay less in utility charges.
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Stuey: I was talking about aggregates rather than individuals. Still, its also true at the individual level: being rich does not prevent you from caring about the environment and may make it easier to do so. One of the biggest problems identified by Community Energy Action in Christchurch was that low income people were often tenants who had no incentive to install water tanks or solar heating and no cash for basic energy savers like curtains.
I’d guess that the suburb of Otara and other low income neighbourhoods are under-represented in membership of the Green party and Greenpeace and Forest and Bird.
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stuey..i think you are being a tad harsh on jocks’, (in my mind quite valid), deconstruction of the preamble..you’ve been around the green party long enough to know that longwinded, platudinous laden statements of the bleeding obvious, (leavened with judgemental complaining tones/timbres), are rife in green party publications/pieties..
it’s called writing by committee..
yinm (whoar.co.nz)
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