Genuine Economic Progress Eludes Most Americans

["Nathan Newman" <nathan.newman@xxxxxxxx>]

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

November 23, 1999

Contacts: Douglas Gould & Co. (914) 833-7093; Jamie Shor (301) 320-3192

WHILE GDP RISES, GENUINE ECONOMIC PROGRESS ELUDES MOST AMERICANS

Why Bigger Isn't Better: The Genuine Progress Indicator 1999 Update:
Malaise at Dawn of New Millennium Explained by Continued Decline of the GPI

Washington, DC - Just one day before the Commerce Department is expected
to release the latest set of increasing Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
figures, Redefining Progress is releasing "Why Bigger Isn't Better: The
Genuine Progress Indicator 1999 Update," a report contradicting the
government's rosy economic status updates. Redefining Progress, a San
Francisco-based public policy organization, says its research finds that
despite the growing GDP, the economy everyday people experience is
continuing a downward trend as we confront the new millenium.

The Genuine Progress Indicator, or GPI, is an alternative to the GDP that
better reflects the way most people interact with economic forces by
incorporating environmental, social, and health factors long ignored by
traditional government measures.

Researchers report that in 1998 the GPI dropped to $1.7 trillion or $6,549
per capita (in 1992 dollars). The drop in the GPI, 2.3% since 1990, is
primarily due to a growing income gap and declining quality of life in
this country. The GPI peaked in 1980 at $1.9 trillion ($8,722 per capita)
and has been declining ever since.

"Progress is more than simply money changing hands," said Joanne
Kliejunas, executive director of Redefining Progress, addressing
reporters, policy experts, and government officials at the Rayburn House
Office Building briefing. "'Why Bigger Isn't Better' debunks the
modern-day myth that a booming economy delivers an improved quality of
life."

Over the past few years, our political leaders have pointed to the rising
GDP as proof of the nation's vitality. But the GDP, the government's chief
measure of economic activity, fails the public as an indicator of
progress. The GDP was designed as a planning tool to guide the massive
production effort for World War II, not as a measure of economic progress.
The GDP is simply a gross tally of money spent -- goods and services
purchased by households or governments, regardless of whether they enhance
our well-being or not.

Endorsed by Nobel laureates and some of the nation's top economists as an
essential step toward more realistic accounts, the GPI explains why many
Americans feel the "boom" has passed them by. The GPI is the best measure
of household economic well-being currently available, and shows a
continuing slide for more than two decades. One critical distinction is
that the GPI does not count negative or defensive expenditures as economic
positives.

For example:

o More than $100 billion was spent on addressing water, air, and noise
  pollution and considered growth by the GDP.

o Foreign lending accounted for $238 billion of the GDP -- but this is
  really debt for future repayment.

o The costs of crime, from replacing stolen goods to purchasing home
  security systems to increased prison building, paradoxically adds $28
  billion to the GDP.

o The loss of old-growth forests, farmland, and wetlands degrade the
  environment and the American landscape, but these losses are calculated
  as growth to the GDP.

Martha Farnsworth Riche, director of the U.S. Bureau of the Census from
1994 to 1998, said, "Citizens need to insist that the government collect
data that captures their experiences within this growing economy. Unless
people demand more appropriate measures of progress, we will continue to
have existing data such as the GDP misrepresented as proof of progress."

Mathis Wackernagel, director of the Indicators Program at Redefining
Progress, explained, "While the GDP rose from $20,310 per capita in 1980
to $27,939 per capita in 1998, the GPI fell from $8,722 to $6,649 during
the same period. The economy that most people experience has fallen and
they feel the sting."

"For much of this decade there has been a paradox at the core of American
life," said Kliejunas. "Politicians and the media say the economy has been
booming. And yet many people are struggling harder than ever only to feel
less well-off and see their quality of life slipping away." She outlined
the three main reasons:

o First, the economic growth is not distributed equally.

o Second, this growth is purchased by increasing financial debts to the
  future, through overseas borrowing and failing to invest enough in future
  productivity.

o Third, the costs of growth include degradation of natural assets and
  depletion of natural resources, an ecological "borrow" from the future
  that we can never hope to repay.

Even though the average wage earner is working 42 hours more per year
since 1990, the real gains from the growth of the GDP have increasingly
benefited the highest income earners in America. From 1975 to 1998, the
proportion of total income received by the poorest fifth of the population
dropped from 4.4% to 3.6%, while the proportion received by the richest
fifth increased from 43.2% to 49.2%. In other words, the rich are getting
richer while the poor get poorer.

There is a disconnect between what the government is tracking, the
politicians are calculating, and Americans are experiencing. The GPI helps
Americans see why and where.

For additional information on "Why Bigger Isn't Better: The Genuine
Progress Indicator 1999 Update," or to request a copy of the report,
please visit the Redefining Progress website at http://www.rprogress.org .

For interviews and quotes, please contact Douglas Gould & Co. at (914)
833-7093.

-30-

Redefining Progress is a five-year-old, nonprofit public policy
organization that works to ensure a more sustainable and socially
equitable world. Redefining Progress seeks to shift the prevailing
definition of progress, from one based exclusively on a growing economy,
to one that insures the health of all people, their communities, and the
environment.

Redefining Progress
One Kearny Street, 4th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94108
Phone: 415.781.1191
Fax: 415.781.1198
Email: info@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


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