Excerpted from "Thinking In Systems: A primer": "Systems, like the three wishes in the traditional fairy tale, have a terrible tendency to produce exactly and only what you ask them to produce. Be careful what you ask them to produce. Maybe the worst mistake of this kind has been the adoption of the GNP as a measure of national economic success. GNP 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. We have a system of accounting that bears on resemblance to the national economy whatsoever, for it is not the record of our life at home, but the fever chart of our consumption."
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 19:19:38 +0000
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