The idea of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to measure development not only in terms of GDP, but in terms of well-being, is not new and is not so wrong and much less can be considered an occurrence.
The idea was presented at the highest level of discussion and consideration by the Indian economist Amartya Sen, a doctor and professor of Economics at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, also a professor of Economics at other institutions such as the University of Calcutta, University of Delhi, Oxford University, London School of Political and Economic Sciences, and Harvard University; In addition, he held positions as president of the International Economic Association, of the American Economic Association, among others, and who, as if that were not enough, won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1988.
The GDP is the monetary value of all the final goods and services produced in a country in a given period of time and has traditionally been considered as the pulse of an economy, as the most important indicator to measure the economic growth of a country. Additionally, the so-called Okun Law establishes, by empirical observations, that to reduce unemployment by 1 percent, GDP must grow by 2 percent.
This knowledge cannot be neglected because in fact they measure the performance of an economy, but they are not adequate indicators to measure people’s well-being or their freedom as proposed by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and now retakes the president of Mexico, from my point of view, rightly.
Amartya Sen proposes a new way of measuring development in terms of freedom and well-being. Freedom from all domination, freedom from poverty, freedom to access public positions and decisions, freedom to move from one place to another safely, freedom from oppression of repressive states, freedom from a good health and education system . (Sen, Amartya, Development as freedom, Achor Books, New York, 2000.)
That is, it would be necessary to distinguish the growth of an economy on the one hand and the welfare of the population on the other. They are two different things although closely linked and the two very important. The idea is to promote economic growth, but at the same time that it promotes and seeks to expand the well-being and freedoms of natural persons while preserving the environment and not just focusing on economic growth.
The only economic growth, measured by the GDP, does not necessarily mean a better welfare of the population nor a better conservation of the environment. The manufacture of the weapons that are later sold to criminal gangs in Mexico increases the GDP of the United States, but enmeshes Mexican families. This is a clear example of how economic growth does not necessarily correspond to the welfare of the population. Let’s not say the manufacture of one or tens or hundreds of atomic bombs. Imagine the reader as adding to the GDP of the United States the manufacture of these expensive bombs and the enormous risk that they have always meant for humanity.
Well-being, on the other hand, implies freedom from the threat of an atomic war. The freedom to see our lives threatened with weapons. The freedom to move from one place to another without fear of being assaulted. That is not measured with GDP.
In terms of the market, people should for their well-being have the freedom to exercise a lawful activity to achieve their valuable goals, such as seeing by their family members. The construction of a huge or gigantic shopping center like those of today that was established in any magical town would increase GDP, but would displace hundreds of small merchants in the short term, affecting the well-being of all these families and the right and freedom of performing a lawful activity to meet your needs and valuable goals.
Fostering the colony market is a solution, it is achieved with urban planning and planning. No one in their right mind would think of establishing a Carrefour in the center of Paris or London, as it would end the hundreds of small businesses that employ many people and also give these cities their extraordinary personality.
The department stores can be located on the outskirts of these population centers to serve as large supply centers, that is, they all fit if they are planned with intelligence always having as reference the well-being and freedom of people to develop a lawful activity that allows them Get your valuable goals.
By promoting the colony market and small merchants, leaving department stores outside as supply centers, we obtain greater economic growth and greater well-being for a greater number of Mexicans.
To be continue…
* Professor at the H. International School of Law and Jurisprudence
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