GDP counts oil spills as economic growth. It counts divorces, crime waves, and epidemics as growth. It does not count clean air, family time, or the health of communities. The man who invented GDP warned us in 1934: 'The welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income.' We ignored him. Three ancient civilisations had better answers. Vedic India said wealth is Artha within Dharma — the full range of conditions that enable human flourishing, but only when acquired through honest means. Chanakya's Arthashastra: 'Poverty breeds vice and hatred; prosperity tends to foster virtue and love.' But Adharmic wealth destroys itself. Aristotle said wealth is a tool for Eudaimonia — the good life in accordance with virtue. 'Being wealthy consists in using things rather than in possessing them.' A life accumulating wealth with no other end in view is not just wrong — it is philosophically incoherent, because money has no intrinsic value. Bhutan replaced GDP with Gross National Happiness in 1971 — measuring psychological wellbeing, health, ecological integrity, cultural continuity, and community vitality. After 50 years: life expectancy doubled, near-universal education, carbon-negative country. The UN Secretary-General made 'Beyond GDP' a central reform agenda for 2024. All three traditions agree on three things modern economics still has not learned: ▸ Wealth is a means, not an end ▸ Wealth without ethical constraint destroys itself ▸ Genuine wealth includes what cannot be bought What is your personal definition of wealth — beyond the bank balance?
Narayan Rout (Tue,) studied this question.
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