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Narrative
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Some of the measures or indicators we just discussed are traditional measures:
- How much money do you make?
- What is the unemployment rate?
The traditional measures that we use tend to show a community as disconnected segments: the
environment, the economy and the society. An environmentalist wants to improve air quality.
A business person want to increase profits. The health professional wants to improve people's
health. However, the traditional ways we use to measure progress in these areas don't take into
account the connections among these three areas. As a result, the three groups may work at cross
purposes. For example:
- Shutting down a factory may improve air quality, but if many people are out of work
they won't be able to afford health care.
- Ignoring air quality regulations may improve profits in the
short term, but poor air quality can affect worker health, which can
in turn cause health insurance costs to go up and therefore hurt
profits in the long run.
(Ask participants to suggest other common measures that may work at cross purposes. One
example is laying off workers to improve profits when the stockholders are pension funds owned
by the workers or their parents. Another example is poor water quality requiring companies to
pay more to clean the water before they use it. A third example is increasing the number of jobs
that pay minimum wage and provide no benefits, which may actually increase overall poverty.)
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