{"id":53253,"date":"2020-05-13T19:28:22","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T00:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=53253"},"modified":"2020-05-13T19:28:26","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T00:28:26","slug":"new-zealand-deprioritizes-growth-improves-health-and-wellbeing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=53253","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand Deprioritizes Growth, Improves Health and Wellbeing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/stories\/2020-05-13\/new-zealand-deprioritizes-growth-improves-health-and-wellbeing\/\">New Zealand Deprioritizes Growth, Improves Health and Wellbeing<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/TP-1.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last May, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern released a budget to improve the \u201cwellbeing\u201d of its citizens rather than focusing on productivity and GDP growth. And not so coincidentally, New Zealand has one of the best coronavirus outcomes of any democracy in the world. Perhaps this provides a model for the world to make&nbsp;<em>economic health&nbsp;<\/em>cohere with&nbsp;<em>health for all life<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To improve wellbeing, Ardern emphasized goals that focus on care for people and planet. Goals included community and cultural connection as well as intergenerational equity. Under the policy, new spending had to focus on one of five priorities: improving mental health, reducing child poverty, addressing inequalities of Indigenous peoples, thriving in a digital age, and transitioning to a low-emission economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While New Zealand isn\u2019t the only country to float the idea of wellbeing over income, it is the first country to make it a reality. Guided by this philosophy, New Zealand is not in a rush to open its economy even as headlines swirl decrying a \u201cstock market crash,\u201d or a \u201crecession worse than 2008-09.\u201d Is Ardern\u2019s example wise? Can we build upon it to further improve life after COVID?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jacinda.jpg\" alt=\"Jacinda Ardern\" class=\"wp-image-3481331\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>New Zealand\u2019s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, has deprioritized \u201cgrowth\u201d as an economic goal in favour of improving wellbeing. Her compatriots seem to like it: her&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2020\/may\/01\/jacinda-ardern-and-her-government-soar-in-popularity-during-coronavirus-crisis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">personal approval rating is 65%<\/a>. Source: Wikimedia Commons.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Health and the economy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the postwar capitalist framework, economic \u201c<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/articles\/personal-finance\/021715\/economic-indicators-canada.asp\" target=\"_blank\">health<\/a>\u201d became equated to income growth, price stability and full employment. There are increasingly serious pitfalls to thinking of \u201chealth\u201d as a capitalist metaphor rather than a desirable end goal. Using GDP and stock market values as measures of overall economic health made sense in the postwar era, when growth was necessary to improve human wellbeing by raising material living standards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Zealand Deprioritizes Growth, Improves Health and Wellbeing Last May, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern released a budget to improve the \u201cwellbeing\u201d of its citizens rather than focusing on productivity and GDP growth. And not so coincidentally, New Zealand has one of the best coronavirus outcomes of any democracy in the world. Perhaps this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4,7],"tags":[391,395,29718,4002,6665],"class_list":["post-53253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-growth","tag-health","tag-james-magnus-johnston","tag-new-zealand","tag-resilience-org"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53253"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53255,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53253\/revisions\/53255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}