COMMENTARY
I found this initiative because Google+ is bringing to Google+ circles additional information flows that might otherwise be dormant. The questions being asked are very similar to the ones that are being asked in other places, but people are not connecting in meaningful ways.

This initiative, like others of a similar sort have been started with enthusiasm, but they did not sustain. There are many reasons, not least of which is the energy that derives from a founder or founding group. There are ineffective mechanisms to move a good idea to people with less enthusiasm, energy and understanding.

I believe that a measurement system would help. There has to be a way to keep score. It is the score that helps to maintain ineterest. Any game that is popular has a scoring system, and the conversation about a game is mainly about the score. For anything about the economy to be of any interest there must be better metrics.

Of course, in the economy, we do have metrics ... but the metrics are not the ones that are going to help people and the planet, they tend to be the ones that uniquely serve the investor class while not measuring in any meaningful way the impact on society and people who are not investors. But change is possible ... and metrics to help make the change are possible.
Peter Burgess

We are motivated by a simple but important question that tends to be overlooked in public policy and academic circles alike:

• What's the economy for, anyway?
• Is it about having the biggest GDP or the highest stock market average?
• Is it about producing a healthy, happy, fair and sustainable society?
• Or is it about something else all together?

Who We Are & What We Do

Welcome to “What’s the economy for, anyway?”, an educational resource project of the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement in association with the Forum on Social Wealth , the Political Economy Research Institute , the Center for Popular Economics , and with support from the University of Washington and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

We are a group of faculty, staff, students, and community members committed to educating the public about the economy. Our goal is to promote a national conversation about the question, “What’s the economy for, anyway?” that allows us to see how our country compares with others when it comes to trends in quality of life, social justice and sustainability. Some of our current projects include:

• Creating a resource database for students and teachers interested in learning more about different aspects of the economy (e.g., health, environment, leisure, wealth, poverty, etc.)
• Generating teaching resources and activities that challenge students to think critically about the economy in terms of its purpose, structure, history, and measurement.
• Providing some quick statistics in our by the numbers link to spark conversations.
• Providing PowerPoint slide shows that introduce users and students to the themes and concerns of our project by utilizing comparative statistics and examining traditional and alternative indices.

INTRODUCTION Our Mission Statement

Our goal is to promote a national conversation about the question – “WHAT’S THE ECONOMY FOR, ANYWAY?” – that allows us to see how the United States compares with other countries when it comes to trends in quality of life, social justice, and sustainability.

Students of history know that social inequality in the United States was a serious problem by the end of the Gilded Age in the late 1800s. A combination of social and economic reforms throughout much of the 20 th Century brought about significant labor protections, consumer protections, higher incomes, and raised health measures – all while the United States became an economic powerhouse.

Since the mid-1970s, however, Americans have been working steadily longer hours, getting less sleep, taking fewer vacations (or none at all), becoming more solitary with less time for friends and family, and dropping in comparative health rankings with other countries. The gap between the wealthiest and the poorest has grown significantly. Americans are also reporting less general contentment and more anxiety overall.

Yet, in spite of these quality of life setbacks, our media and our politicians typically measure our economy’s ups and downs with a small set of other economic indicators – housing starts, durable goods sales, GDP, the Dow Jones Average, Treasury Bill rates, etc. Indeed, our Gross Domestic Product is the highest in the world, long term stock investments have produced bonanzas for a great number, and the average square footage of American houses has enlarged dramatically over the last several decades. By these measures, we seem to have much to celebrate.

It seems appropriate to promote learning and discussion about whether we are really using the right measures to gauge the success of our economy. Why are other nations surpassing the United States, often dramatically, in a great many measures that define quality of life, health, and contentment? What are they doing differently? What might we change? These are some of the questions we want to put front and center.

Put another way, the WHAT’S THE ECONOMY FOR, ANYWAY? project examines the ideology and consequences of attitudes and policies underlying what some have advocated as the “ownership society.” We offer a set of balancing perspectives aimed at understanding how and whether, our economic and political system can create the “greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time,” as proposed a century ago by Gifford Pinchot, the first head of the National Forest Service.

This broad look at competing views of how economies best serve society is offered to stimulate informed communication in classrooms, study abroad programs, and in communities across America.

BY THE NUMBERS For Every 1,000 Americans

The numbers below are drawn from two special reports entitled “ America by the Numbers”, which appeared in Time magazine on October 30, 2006 and November 26, 2007.

For Every 1,000 Americans

• 799 live in a city or suburb (2007).
• 455 are employed (2006).
• 420 voted in the last presidential election (2006).
• 353 drive to work alone (2007).
• 159 have no health insurance (2006).
• 173 speak a language other than English at home (2006).
• 126 live in poverty (2006).
• 23 are in prison, in jail, or on probation (2006).
• 622 are overweight or obese (2007).
• 5 are in the active duty military (2006).

Please note that the site and the project are both works in progress. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions please contact Tim Jones at taojones@u.washington.edu.