http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2658020
'Life's Never Been as Good as in 1976' By Rachel Williams, PA News The UK has never had it so good since 1976, according to a report out today which claims the nation?s progress has stagnated over the past 30 years.
The study argues that the most commonly-used measure of progress, Gross Domestic Product, gives a false impression of an improved society.
Instead, it uses a composite Measure of Domestic Progress (MDP) to take into account the environmental and social costs of economic growth ? including the damage done by pollution and crime.
By this reckoning 1976, when Concorde made its first commercial flight and Britons sweltered in the hottest summer of the century, was the best year ever for the UK.
According to think tank the New Economic Foundation, while GDP has soared in the past 50 years, MDP has struggled to rise at all.
But it does bear a much closer resemblance to measures of life satisfaction ? which have not risen in 30 years.
The divergence between MDP and GDP is particularly stark over the past 30 years, during which GDP has increased 80%.
MDP fell sharply in the 1980s and has never regained its 1976 peak.
Since 1950 environmental costs have risen 300% and social costs 600%, the study found.
There has been a 13-fold increase in the costs of crime and a four-fold increase in the costs of family breakdown.
The report said the persistent divergence between GDP and MDP raised difficult questions for the Government?s sustainable development strategy and ?cast serious doubt on the myth of economic progress?.
?Despite major increases in income and a three-fold rise in consumption over the past 50 years, the costs and risks of environmental degradation, rising inequality, social breakdown and the diseases of affluence now threatening advances in life expectancy mean that real progress towards a sustainable society is lagging dangerously behind,? the think tank said.
Ahead of tomorrow?s budget, report author Professor Tim Jackson, of the University of Surrey, called on Chancellor Gordon Brown to address the problem.
?Economic growth is running unacceptable environmental risks, doesn?t guarantee social progress and isn?t even making us any happier,? he said.
I don't know about all that. I just remember I got to play out a lot and have the paddling pool out constantly. Life was good in 76.
