Robert F. Kennedy on GNP

[Christer Soderberg]

A new friend recently told me about this speech. How relevant it feels, more than 40 years later.

Remarks of Robert F. Kennedy at the University of Kansas, March 18, 1968
Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

"Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile."

What have we learned since 1968?

P.S. A very interesting book on this subject is written by a member here on Open World Café Network; Sander G. Tideman, author of: "Mind Over Matter - Towards a New Paradigm for Leadership in Business and Economics", and co-founder of "Global Leaders Academy". Contact Sander for more information.