From: NPR
You're Growing Older … Is Your Life Getting Better Or Worse?
NPR:
Robert F. Kennedy once said that GDP, or gross domestic product, “measures everything … except that which makes life worthwhile.”
GDP, in case you weren’t paying attention in Econ 101, looks at economic activity as a way to size up how a country is doing.
RFK has a point. The status of a country amounts to more than the number of goods it produces and sells. Psychology professor Arthur Stone says, “Right now, there’s a lot of dissatisfaction in using GDP as a measure of a country’s progress.”
So then what do you use?
For several years now, scientists have been grappling with this question. A study published this week in The Lancet uses levels of personal satisfaction to examine global well-being. Stone is one of the study’s authors — and the director of the University of Southern California’s Dornsife Center for Self-Report Science.
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I’m turning 53 next week. I worked for a company for 31 years and got let go through no fault of my own. I went from making $30 an hour to $10 an hour on unemployment. That was over 2 years ago. I finally found a good job but laid off 3 days later due to the small company loosing 50% of their business. It’s very difficult to find a job for the over 50 female sector. Thank God for Medicaid expansion. Having worked my whole life, raising a special needs daughter alone, I was always able to support us. We had quality healthcare and even took a vacation or two. I have learned how the “Have nots” live and feel. Near poverty is horrible and each day is difficult. I now get inferior healthcare and treated badly by many healthcare providers. I am in jeporidy of loosing my home of 20 years to forclosure. My savings has been exhausted. I drive my daughter’s old car praying no breakdowns will happen. My brother and his wife often supplement me with food. I’m at the mercy of the state government for my income and medical care. I’ve worked many years going to school part time to get my BA. Never in a million years would I have thought this is how I would end up.
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