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Path: utzoo!watmath!idallen
From: idallen@watmath.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Measures of rapid progress and economic growth.
Message-ID: <15183@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 20-Jun-85 10:34:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmath.15183
Posted: Thu Jun 20 10:34:09 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 20-Jun-85 23:40:25 EDT
References: <972@mnetor.UUCP> <5703@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 18

> The western nations ... developed a culture that was better suited to rapid
> progress and internal economic growth than the world's other cultures.
> The undoubted evils perpetrated against some developing societies by
> some western entities should not blind us to this.
> 				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology

At times, I wonder if this "progress" and economic "growth" is being
measured in terms of overall human and global well-being, or in terms
of GNP and number of Cuisinarts per square rec room.  Trouble is, I can
count GNP and Cuisinarts -- I can't so easily measure overall human
well-being.  (Human factors?  Who cares, man -- it runs at 16.5 MHz and
has 32 bits of address space!  Progress you can *measure*!)

I guess every culture invents and believes its own measures of success,
but nobody has told me how many Cuisinarts I need to replace an extended
family or to endure living in Toronto.
-- 
        -IAN!  (Ian! D. Allen)      University of Waterloo