Gross!!

Getting rid of superfluous GDP for a happier life

With a preface byMaurizio Pallante

Movement for a positive negative-growth

www.depiliamoci.it

www.decrescitafelice.it

Dedicated to Angelica and Annnalisa

With thanks to:

Davide GiganteJoe Lang

Brian MolloyEttore RuggieroGiovani Sasso

Patrizia SemeraroGiampiero Spinosa

for their invaluable professional contributions

Index

Conceptual Map

Prefaceby Maurizio Pallante

Introduction

Appendix 1The Case Cards

Appendix 2From Gross Domestic Product to Gross Domestic Well-being

This map (causal circuit) contains only some of the levers that contribute to the formation of Gross Domestic Well-being.Begin following it from any point you wish, follow the direction of the arrows and you will discover how each route generates a virtuous circle leading to well-being.But don’t stop at these levers and these circuits, think of the other positive effects of GDW that are not reported in the map, hypothesize other systemic routes, insert other elements and link them to the already existing ones.Every time you want to add positive ideas, go to the site www.depiliamoci.it and contribute to the map’s enhancement.

PREFACE

PREFACE

BY MAURIZIO PALLANTEEXPERT IN ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY

In current political and economic jargon the word “decline” remains something of an unspeakable taboo which, however, becomes altogether much more palatable if replaced by alternative language such as “negative growth”. Yet the acceleration of climatic changes, established as arising from the increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere draw into even sharper focus the necessity of hitting the breaks, of examining our consumption of the fossil fuels that power and sustain the growth of a gross domestic product. Indeed, whilst a concept such as “decline” begins to command a place in our ways of seeing the world that has until now been denied to it, it also takes on certain connotations associated with a new cultural paradigm, one which appears capable of moulding new individual life-style choices, scientific and technological research, and the political choices of collectives. Doubtless such a task is not without its difficulties and requires a fundamental shift in our attitude towards ideologies of “growth”, a sea-change in the steadfast

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consensus that has solidified the idea of economic growth of two differing, yet all so often alternating concepts: that of products and that of goods. Given that the standard calculation of GDP relies on measuring added value, or better, the monetary value of objects and services which are exchanged for money, an increase in “well-being” may come about only when products are identified with goods. In truth not all products are goods and not all goods are products. What we are left with is that in order to be a “value”, decline can be conceived as a reduction in products that are not goods and increase in goods that are not products.

The fruit and vegetables cultivated by an individual family for their own consumption represent goods which are qualitatively much better than the fruit and vegetables bought from the supermarket. They do not, however, pass through the intermediary of a retailer and therefore may not be classed as products. Anyone producing fruit and vegetables for their own consumption need not follow the purchasing path. In a society founded upon growth, which is forever being invoked as the aim of economic and productive activity, such behavior is considered anti-social.

Any given journey by car obviously consumes a certain quantity of a fuel product. Such a journey therefore contributes to the growth of the gross domestic product. If for that very same journey you find yourself in a slow moving tailback, the consumption of a fuel product increases: consequently the gross domestic product increases further still. On top of this, the environmental and social costs, both individual and collective, must be taken into account as getting to your destination not only takes longer, but stress levels increase, as do levels of

8

PREFACE

carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The majority of petrol as a product consumed in traffic jams and tailbacks is not a “good”. An economic system based on the growth of the gross domestic product must necessarily and progressively substitute goods (which do not contribute to the growth of GDP) with products (which contribute to such growth), inducing the belief that such a substitution contributes towards an improvement in living standards and openly condemning those who do not practice it.

The activities that produce goods are not even considered as work and are not included in related statistics. Only working activities in which money changes hands are considered as work. The concept of work has therefore been reduced to the concept of employment and has been contextually robbed of any concept relating to “use”. The housewife or the surviving agricultural producers who dedicate the majority of their working time to the self-sufficient production of goods and exchanging such goods for money only in cases of excessive production, do not figure within the category of employed workers as they do not receive a monetary income from their work and do not therefore contribute to the growth of the gross domestic product. Their activities, in spite of them being exceptionally useful, are not considered as work.

The quantity of goods which may be usefully self-produced in place of the products which have replaced them is far greater than the mind infatuated with the culture of growth is able to imagine. In particular, most personal services that can be given out of love in the ambit of family relationships are not even qualitatively comparable to those services carried out in exchange for

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money. However, an incessant propaganda forces us to believe that entrusting these services to specialists not only improves the quality of such services but also improves the life of those who, instead of carrying them out directly and freely, since they are now able to dedicate their time to producing products to exchange for money to buy those services from people who perform them on their behalf.

In any case, even if we were to free all those products which we can self-produce to our advantage from the process of commercialisation and similarly, all those services which could be provided free of charge for the benefit of all, it would be neither sensible nor possible to aim at an absolute self-sufficiency. Even without written rules, exchange which is not based on the market is founded on three principles: the obligation of giving, the obligation of receiving and the obligation of giving more than you receive. Moreover, the dynamics of giving and receiving creates social ties. In this context, new ways of giving can co-exist, for example the giving of one’s time, of professional skills, of humanity and warmth, attention, and solidarity to name but a few, but not bartering which is based on the laws of the market. The word “community” is made up of two Latin words: the preposition cum, which indicates a tie or link, and the noun munus which means “gift” or “give”. The community is then a group of humans united by forms of exchange and giving not based on markets.Socrates would every so often visit the market in order to understand exactly how many of the things on offer he did not need. Even if you are not Socrates, a person who has even a bit of respect for their own intelligence and wants to contribute towards halting the cancerous growth of the gross domestic product may well see sense in the

10

PREFACE

idea of buy nothing as a lifestyle choice. In the cultural paradigm of a positive negative-growth the concept of sobriety is one of fundamental value, which not surprisingly has been ridiculed by a cultural paradigm based on growth and has been labelled as nothing more than tight-fisted. Yet its positive worth risks being masked if it is confused with asceticism or with an attitude of giving up, motivated by high and noble reasons: so as not to use up all the resources, to reduce pollution, to not take away necessary resources from the poor, to enhance and appreciate better the spiritual dimension of man, to substitute goods for personal use with goods for collective use. Sobriety does not mean giving something up, but is a lifestyle choice that is not only good for the person who practices it, but for the society as a whole.Self-production and the non-mercantile exchange of goods are a return to, and revaluation of, elements of the past that, despite having future potentiality not yet fully realized, have been abandoned in the name of modernity and progress.

The right and the left, in all the different forms in which they have been manifested throughout history, from the most moderate to the most extreme, are two variants of an identical cultural paradigm which has growth, innovation and progress as its central tenets. Linked by the same value system, the differences which distinguish them from each other consist in the policies adopted in order to favour, in one way or another, the best methods for achieving growth and how to share the winnings between the key players who have allowed them to achieve such growth.

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Nobody from the right or the left has even the smallest doubt about the importance and the necessity of economic growth. Growth is the first pledge of any political manifesto. A dead-cert which seems not to need any justification. Just as any living organism must breathe, so the economy must grow. If it does not grow, it is a symptom of its illness.

War for the control of oil fields, the melting of the polar ice-caps, the rising of sea levels, and the climatic changes which we are already witnessing are rarely linked to the increase in consumption of fossil fuels, so necessary in sustaining the growth of production and consumption. As if nothing was happening, the right and the left, with whatever mask they may currently be wearing, continue to place growth at the very centre of their political programmes.

The work of Lorusso and De Padova is outside of this dialectic and represents and important step towards helping to build an alternative culture to that which characterises the western world from the period of the industrial revolution to today. Starting from a reappraisal of intellectual autonomy (in the etymological sense of the word), emphasised at every turn, the authors outline lifestyle models and value choices to which individuals can relate with the aim of creating a completely new way of looking at the world, turning “common sense” upside-down. At the moment in which growth becomes the be-all and end-all, humans become pawns in a process which they no longer have control over: work is no longer the method in which one may improve one’s living conditions, both material and spiritual, but rather a despotic boss, all the more despotic because it is impersonal and responds to its own internal logic. The

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PREFACE

work of demystification in this book is systematic. One could almost say inexorable. One step ahead of this, however, and just as systematic, not to mention inexorable, is the job of reconstruction, in which it is easy to perceive a type of ethical, pedagogic commitment. Yet, and of no less importance for the concreteness and the practicality of their proposals, and always without abstraction, there is the simple rediscovery of simple actions. Actions and ways of living which have been brought to light having previously been obscured, held hostage and derided but never cut off from the essential human spirit. The resulting sense that is gained is one of trust in the possibility of change. The wake up call for modern society, long over-due, rings in our ears. This is an invitation to free ourselves from the sinking sand into which consumerism has led us. To free ourselves and look forward.

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTIONWe need a new way of thinking to resolve the

problems caused by old ways of thinking.(Albert Einstein)

How painful is the act of “de-GDPing”? (It should be noted that the reference to pain is not incidental - the original Italian version of this book was cleverly entitled Depiliamoci, meaning “Let’s depilate!”, as GDP in Italy is known as the PIL).What do we need to know and do in order to move from GDP to GDW? We still do not have a concrete answer to that. What we do have are ideas which we would like to share with you and hopefully after having read them you can help too.Our ideas are set out in a conceptual map that we would advise you to open right now and leave it open whilst you read the book. We realise that this may prove slightly awkward but de-GDPing works in a similar way – it hurts at first but everything looks better afterwards.The conceptual map (or causal circuit) that you have just opened is designed according to the logic of system dynamics. At this point it would seem only fair to offer, especially to those readers who may not have first-hand experience of systemic approaches, certain cognitive tools which will prove indispensable in a more complete reading of this book.A causal circuit is a graphic representation model of “phenomena” in which “facts” or “events” or “entities” or

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“objects” in general are represented by boxes which are then connected between themselves by lines which follow pathways (curving around the map with directional arrows) and indicate the circular relationships of causality between the “objects”. In this way, if between “object A” and “object B” there is a connection with arrows pointing from A towards B, there is an indication that A influences or determines a variation in B or it is necessary that B changes its qualitative-quantitative vales as a consequence of A. The sign which sits alongside an arrow indicates the nature of the variation in B: in terms of an increase (+) or a decrease (-). Along the lines that connect the various rectangles you will not find, however, the symbol (//) which may normally be used in causal circuits to indicate “Time delays”. We have avoided this as, in reality, had we decided to include such indications, we would have to have used them on every single line. It is therefore evident that whenever we encounter “object B”, that it is subject to change (whether in value or quality) as a result of A but only after a particular length of time. Maps which employ the systemic approach only allow for inclusion “circuits which may be closed”.When all of the represented circuits are considered as “conceptually correct” and appear to contain all of the “objects” which “embody” the phenomena under analysis, it may be concluded that the map is “completed” and/or “coherent”. A coherent systemic circuit therefore corresponds to a potentially shared representation of a phenomenon. Given this synthetic conceptual definition (which in its absolute simplification is certainly not intended to offend or devalue the work done by those involved professionally within the field of “System Dynamics”), it may be that

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INTRODUCTION

[…] it won’t be too long until the day in which economics stands at the back of the queue where it belongs, and […] feelings and ideas will become[…] central to our real problems: problems of everyday life and human relationships, of behaviours, of religion.1

The intention of the authors is therefore to outline a possible description of the phenomenon described as the “culture of the decline of consumption” or as the “culture of self-control” which may help in the transition from GDP to GDW.We ask our readers to follow all of the possible circuits contained in the model, those which may be more visible and those which may be less so (for example, routes to be found in the inner sections of the diagram that may be smaller), stopping to reflect on each individual element, evaluating their “credibility” and above all to either approve or reject the connections and relationships that are highlighted by the model (it should be noted that an array of possible connections exist beyond those already presented).Our intention is, therefore, to have provided a working tool to the community on a socio-economic-political level, which through our website www.depiliamoci.it, is open to both contributions and criticism. Such input may come from anyone interested in the growth of such a tool, its development (including the insertion of new causal circuits which may explain in greater detail or perhaps more clearly, the phenomenon under examination) or even, perhaps in the destruction of a line, should we, as users, have made a conceptual error. Anyone (through identifying relationships between elements within the circuit) may refer to the map in order to substantiate their

1 Written in 1932 by John Maynard Keynes, considered by many as the greatest economist of the 20th

century.17

ideas – the verification of their validity or importance within a systemic environment. It would seem then only too evident that where the sharing of the proposed model (which you will immediately notice lacks certain other elements which interact with the phenomenon in question) should overlap and where new elements could be added and inserted in such a way as to complete the model itself without breaking the coherence, we would achieve a complete demonstration that a “new” world based on temperance would not only be possible but also auspicious.In order to support the interpretation of the map we also offer two appendices which we feel may be of use. The “Case Cards” which make up the first appendix are designed to illustrate individual elements of the map. This is intended to both facilitate the reading of the map and communicate one of the possible meanings that the authors have attributed to the concept expressed by one single element. Moreover, various connections that are not expressed on the map itself exist within the Case Cards.The Case Cards can be read in sequence as they are (in alphabetical order), even though we would tend to suggest that they are referred to by following a specific pathway as identified on the map (note that they must always be closed pathway circuits which follow the direction of the arrow).There are more Case Cards than those represented on the map. This does, however, follow the logic of the book: we have been able to add concepts, as you too will be able to do, yet only having first drawn the map itself. The Case Cards often show examples that may be considered trivial. Do not be surprised by this – it was our intention.

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INTRODUCTION

Moreover, we are convinced of the importance of perseverance in carrying out effective gestures (however small they may be considered as simple modifications to our everyday actions and habits). In this way we can kick-start the process of cultural change necessary for the abolition of the superfluous GDP and take steps towards the achievement of real well-being.Within the pages that make up the second appendix, we put forward our ideas in support of the map in a more detailed way. This includes reference to the work of other authors on whom our studies have recently focused (and whose work deepens and expands our central ideas with a range of perspectives and view points, which may also conflict between authors).This appendix may prove useful in reflecting on the serious consequences for our planet should we continue to sanction and favour the present dominant growth culture.After reading this book it is hoped that you may find yourself in the position of somebody who, like us, has not only the desire to turn the tables but also the will to involve others in this increasingly vital task.

Try to imagine the inevitable resistance to this; in each of us there is a certain reluctance to leave our unsustainable habits behind us. Search in yourselves and in others the best human instincts and treasure them. Do not ignore the cynicism which is around you and whilst avoiding being judgemental, do not be drawn into it. Humanity will not emerge victorious from the attempt to redirect human behaviour onto a track of sustainability if such an attempt is not based on a spirit of cooperation on a global scale. Collapse cannot be avoided if humans do not learn to consider themselves and others as part of an integrated global society. In both cases there is the need for solidarity, not only with those closest, but also with those who are most distant in time and in space. Humanity must learn to treasure the idea of leaving a liveable planet for generations which are to follow.2

2 Donella and Dennis Meadows, Jorgen Randres, Limits to Growth19

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APPENDIX 1

APPENDIX 1

THE CASE CARDS

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Let’s practice Self-controlTHE STARTING POINT FOR EVERYTHING

The attainment and the practise of an individual self-control (as citizens, workers, parents, organisers, business people, investors, politicians and so on) and the actions as individuals or as a collective on a daily basis paves the way for a process towards the decrease in waste and in factors of no use-value (the superfluous GDP). This is followed by a greater attention focused on the use of raw materials, energy and time which each in turn activate the virtuous circle of the GDW.Once such a culture has gained ground, the consumption of resources is effectively reduced through the production of products that make the best use of technology, that do not pollute, that do not impoverish but improve the working conditions of people.

Every one of us, taken individually, is the embodiment of our own order or disorder, of our own conservation and destruction. If we put ourselves under the microscope and focus on our own present condition, focus the attention and the willpower on ourselves, are we thinking of a better life for ourselves or a worse life? Do we discover ourselves to be generous or selfish? Are we more interested in ideas about being or having? For those who exercise self-control there is no danger of excess or exaggeration, instead we act with fairness and equilibrium.

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APPENDIX 1

Self-sufficiency with goods and servicesTRY TO PURCHASE ONLY THAT WHICH YOU CANNOT PRODUCE YOURSELF

The fundamental rule of the presiding culture is that everything is a commodity; that everything has to be bought. That is to say that the only meaningful occupation with which people should be concerned is that of work in exchange for a financial retribution with which we can express our purchasing power. People should no longer have time to dedicate towards “productive” occupations which are not focused towards the demands of the market. The term “work” has inexorably become a synonym of “an activity for a cash reward”. Self-sufficiency in production boasts the benefit of a lower reliance on income and is sustained by the availability of time taken away from time which would otherwise be spent working (for an income). Whilst clearly this circuit cannot be expanded infinitely, it can be far wider reaching than the dominant commodity culture would have us believe, in its constant attempts to reduce such activity even to the point of its disappearance.

An elementary school we know of, not so long ago, organised a campaign to raise funds so that the school could afford to appoint a firm to clean up its gardens. A parent with a child at the school suggested that, along with four or five other families, the task could be done for free by the parents themselves and their children coming in and volunteering for a few hours on a Sunday. Many people, including the management of the school, responded to such a “tight-fisted” suggestion with disdain. Unfortunately in this case, such a response completely denied an effective opportunity that would have undoubtedly been a valuable experience for many, both children and adults, in self-sufficiency by working together and learning to respect the garden.

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Maintaining strong relationshipsLOVE ACTUALLY

A couple, even if they are in love, have an emotional understanding, trust, a healthy sex life, a number of interests in common, share the household chores and educational responsibilities for their children is not yet a couple that has good martial relationships. This is due to the fact that they may lack a relational dimension with other families and with society itself. Making time for the family is the first step towards the building of a real relationship and leads to the growth of strong social bonds. Partners who love each other and love the world around them without being dominated by the anxiety that consumerism creates are the foundations of families.

There are people who try to stay out “as late as possible” thus avoiding relations with a partner. It is difficult to say how many more arrive home and after a quick peck on the cheek find it difficult to share reciprocally in the ups and downs of everyday life. The downs are always more easily resolved in two, with a greater possibility of arriving at a solution, growing together and carving out new goals. The ups become even more precious.

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APPENDIX 1

Healthy Social Links LEARNING FROM OTHERS THE THINGS YOU REALLY NEED

Having the time available to talk and get to know your partner is the precondition for building a healthy family and in turn the occasion for being together and socialising. This leads not only to exchanges of opinions, ideas, skills, favours, understanding, experience and so on, but to the strengthening of social ties based on giving a helping hand whilst looking someone in the eye. The same result simply cannot be achieved by making a donation to a good cause, however noble, for example an adoption of a third world child, or research into the cure of a devastating illness.

Technology has meant a giant leap forward in terms of social ties. It has allowed us to cross national boundaries and eliminate spatial distances. It has allowed us to gain insights into other peoples and new cultures. Chatting and making new friends on the internet is, in many cases, very fulfilling. But meeting face to face with somebody or saying “thank you” with a simple hug is always extraordinary. Videoconferences are not enough to understand another persons actions or deeds – we need to be able to actually “smell” them.

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Production CostsREDUCING COSTS BY INCREASING VALUE

Production costs can be cut directly by reducing the use of raw materials and energy, but even further by the reduction of waste and through the improvement of processes. Other advantages are to be gained through the mechanism of external exchange with which the company can recuperate the by-products of production, or by gaining people’s trust, both internally and externally, or by reducing costs for provision and so on. All of these things also have a positive effect on the price of a product.

“Have you got yourself certified with ISO 9000 to improve your processes? Did you know that you will reduce your costs if you reorganise the company according to that standard?”“I haven’t even thought about it. I don’t think it would be of much use for my company. To be honest, from what I’ve heard it just increases your paperwork and employees waste their time filling things in.”“And when might you do it?”“Once the company has done exactly the opposite from whatever is written in the quality manual which the consultants prepared. Do you think this is quality? A reduction in costs? I am convinced that all the company is after is a logo to put on the headed paper.”“Your problem is cultural! How are you ever going to reduce your costs?”“Oh, the usual – low paid workers and loads of unpaid overtime.”

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APPENDIX 1

Culture and Practice for the Common GoodCREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR EVERBODY TO LEAD A BETTER LIFE

When our daily subsistence is in synergy with the idea of cooperation, everybody benefits (political leaders, families, citizens, associations, companies and so on) and can act according to the principal of the “common good”, or more precisely, the good of each one of us, because, really, we are all responsible for each other. Directly stemming from this is the demand for products and services that do not pollute, do not damage our health and that protect our future generations.

A member of the government of Ecuador has stated:“I have always argued with conviction that the future development of our forests should not merely be limited to the protection of trees and mountains, but must also directly help and benefit the community which lives in that same area. For this very reason it is necessary to carry out forest protection programmes which are fundamentally social, based on the natural resources available, and allow the mobilization of local manpower on a large-scale thus benefiting those who are presently out of work.”

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The Culture and Practice of CooperationDONATE WHAT OTHERS ACTUALLY NEED RATHER THAN JUST OUR SURPLUS

A new lifestyle which embraces sobriety, conviviality, temperance, giving and so on, a lifestyle which we consider to be the latest innovation but which we actually really need, helps everyone to live according to a sense of cooperation as an ingredient of a superior “good” - a “common good”.

An 81 year-old pensioner said “I’ve been a pensioner for many years now, but that absolutely doesn’t mean that I’m here twiddling my thumbs. I used to think that retiring meant passive time. Now, thinking about my own experience and that of many others I know, I would say that it is exactly the contrary. I look around me with joy at the many people who are more active than they ever were and, depending on their opportunities and the physical strength, give back all of the professional experience they gained over the years in a range of different social activities.”

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APPENDIX 1

The Culture and Practice of Daily SubsistenceFIRST MAKE USE OF YOUR OWN TALENTS AND THEN ASK HELP FOR THOSE THINGS YOU CANNOT DO

The culture and practice of daily subsistence also depends on the expansion of auto-production for both goods and services. Daily subsistence is the basis for the development of the culture and practice of the “common good”. In this way the market and its products are used only as subsidium (reserve) in terms of to what degree somebody can live, and is encouraged to live, “without” the market and its products.

Living according to daily subsistence places individuals at the centre of social life, putting them in a position in which they can respond (alongside others) to the needs and requirements of society. There are many examples, both nationally and internationally, of neighbourhoods and even entire cities which have developed thanks to the creativity and initiative of its citizens.

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Dedication to the companyTHE MORE WE CARE ABOUT PEOPLE, THE MORE THEY WILL GIVE US THEIR HEARTS, AS WELL AS THEIR MINDS AND THEIR TECHNICAL SKILLS.

The importance of the involvement and participation of “human resources” in a company is now a pre-requisite for efficiency and efficacy. Entrepreneurs and managers who set aside time and attention for people in reality do no more than what their duties require of them. They know, in fact, that such an attitude will have a beneficial effect on the dedication and effort of the worker in carrying out his or her tasks. And more can be done. The time saved in production processes thanks to new technologies can be used to help support workers and help resolve their many problems. In this way, the social responsibility of the company is extended.

A small company has decided to provide a shuttle-bus service to and from the nursery school where its female workers are sending their children during working-hours.There are more and more companies that are favouring the socialization of their workers and their families through sports, recreational activities, cultural activities and so on.

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APPENDIX 1

Dangerous effects on our health and on the environmentLIFE DOES NOT IMPROVE BY INCREASING THE NUMBER OF PROTECTIVE MASKS

Our health, and the environment in which we live, are constantly damaged by the reckless use of fossil fuels and the exploitation and waste of raw materials. This is not only due to the production process itself but also to the waste-products generated and the necessary treatments needed to deal with them.Intervention on these elements leads to immediate positive effects on our health and on that of the planet. Consequently, companies that really take concrete action in this area give testimony to the social implications (the social responsibility of the company) of their activities.

We pollute with fine powders and then try to limit the damage by using filters in air-conditioning systems. We do something similar with regards to cars. As they go around polluting our cities with their exhaust pipes situated at the same height as babies in their prams, what do we do? We put masks over the babies mouths. In this way we prepare them for when they get older and will have to go around with oxygen tanks around their necks if they want to help their tar-filled lungs to breathe.

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EnergyWE ARE SMOKING UP THE PLANET

The reduction in the quantity of energy used, or at least its efficient use (irrespective of the type and eco-compatibility of the source) has positive repercussions on the costs of production and, in large part, on the environment.Where the sources are fossil (or at least non-renewable) the reduction in the quantity of energy used would have immediate positive repercussions on health and the environment, and thus increase the advantages of such forward-looking behaviour.

The air-conditioning systems (mainly for heating in the winter and cooling in the summer) are now found in almost every workplace and home, and their use has spread so much so that, in Italy, in just a few years, the consumption of energy in the summer has overtaken that of the winter and the public has to be warned about not using them too much on hot days in order to avoid the risk of black-outs.In the HQ of an important Japanese multinational in Tokyo, a centuries-old rule on etiquette stating that “coats must not be taken off in the office” was broken. This led to a notable reduction in the use of the air-conditioners.

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APPENDIX 1

Responsibly numerous familiesTHE BEST PLACE TO LIVE AND BE SOCIALLY USEFUL

A happy marriage, a social network of support, the idea of the family as the primary site for the growth of a good citizen, are the fertilizers and ingredients for the development of many families (those that form out of the exercise of paternal and maternal responsibility and not simply as the consequence of sexual relations). And it is from these very families that the propensity for sobriety and the acquisition of all those values necessary for the development of cultural well-being (GDW) as opposed to that of a have-have culture (GDP) are born.

I’ve only got one child because with what I earn I can only afford one baby-sitter, one swimming course, one bicycle, one language study trip abroad a year, one motorbike, one mobile, one holy communion party, one season ticket for the stadium, one… Let my son play football in the empty car-park of the supermarket in front of our house?It’s better to enrol him at a football school. I have to buy him a new bike, I can’t let him use that old one that his cousin used to ride around on. And what about his birthday party? And the presents from Father Christmas? And those of Epiphany? Etc? Etc?

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Investments in innovationA PRACTISE FINANCED ONLY WHEN IT HELPS GDP TO GROW

Introducing innovative thinking on GDW and sustaining necessary investment in the absence of public financing are natural things for a company that has a vision that is not only profit-oriented.The improvement in the products and processes that results from this not only reduces the consumption of resources and improves the quality of workers’ input, but also creates incentives for the introduction of new technology.

A dynamic Apulian graphics company recently completely renewed its productive system passing from a four-colour process to a six-colour process with technologies that allow the doing away with of films and chemical solvents (reduction in raw materials and waste that have a high cost of waste treatment).Now it offers its customers a product of greater quality, is ecologically more compatible, with a simplified productive process and one which is safer for its workers. All for a finished product that costs less.The entrepreneur did not seek public financing for this innovation.

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APPENDIX 1

Raw materialsWE ARE EATING UP THE PLANET

The reduction in the consumption of raw materials, or more generally of the materials that go into any process (whether productive or not), contributes directly to the reduction in waste, the reduction in the costs of procurement and of production and has immediate positive effects on the environment from where the raw materials come.

“After having printed a test copy, we are happy simply to separate the paper (only one side of which is used) from the rest of the rubbish and our conscience is clear simply because we have engaged in a bit of “recycling”.” A businessman, after reflecting on this matter a little, decided to set aside one of the three printers in his small office for used paper, that is to say feeding it with paper that already had print on one side. In just one year he noticed that the money spent on A4 paper had been cut by 35%. How much do big companies spend on photocopy paper?

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Improving the products/processesHOW TO REDEFINE THE CHAIN OF VALUES

Thanks to the contributions of motivated people who work in the company, it is possible to begin the improvement of products/processes and this must always be accompanied by good investments that are not only aimed at increasing production and lowering prices. Improvement, as we see it, leads to new or modified products (less pollution, less of a “waste” of resources, and which is of benefit to the territory not only in economic terms) becoming the carriers of values that can be easily turned into components of the price, which the consumer wants to be “competitive” even if not necessarily “lower”.

Recently, the market of private lessons at home, useful for British and American teachers to balance their budgets, has been strongly undermined by the offer of “tele-lessons” via the internet by Indian teachers. The most popular subjects are technical ones but the offer is rapidly widening. The hourly rate (including connection costs) are 4 to 10 times lower than those of the “traditional” market”.If they want to continue to tout their lessons in peoples’ homes, the teachers will have to enrich them with “added values” that really justify their higher prices.

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APPENDIX 1

The need for pro-capita incomeLET’S MAKE DO WITH WHAT WE NEED - MORE MAKES LIFE WORSE

The self-production of goods and, especially, services – in particular those aimed at people and the smooth running of one’s house - , the availability of good relationships and social ties with one’s community, the metamorphosis in lifestyles, the sharing of goods and services, the culture of giving and the practice of solidarity, markedly reduce the necessity for income and with it the necessity for work time. In this way we set off the fantastic forward-looking circle of well-being, opposed to that vicious circle of having-having.

Leaving the children with a baby-sitter to go to work sometimes costs more than you earn in those hours that your children are with the baby-sitter.Five parents who agree to take it in turns to look after their children from Monday to Friday surely earn less, because they work one day a week less, but thanks to that one day a week spent at home, they can reduce their need for income, and not only because they don’t pay for a baby-sitter anymore.

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new technologiesAT THE SERVICE OF PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS PRACTICE TOWARDS THE REDUCTION OF SUPERFLUOUS GDP

Thanks to the increasing demand for products and services that have a low impact on resources and thanks to the improvement in processes, companies learn to use new technologies to think up and produce products that satisfy the real needs of the community. We are dealing with a process of global learning that re-establishes the correct rapport between supply and demand, where the latter, no longer the victim of the former, once more becomes the leader.

Unfortunately, still today, new technology is used to introduce products onto the market that, despite being heralded as not being pollutant, are still destined to quickly become waste. Products in plastic made out of maize, for example plates and cups, encourage even greater consumerism. They have said to us, “What? Didn’t you know? They completely disintegrate within 18 months; we don’t have to worry; now we can consume even more without polluting and helping agriculture all the time!!”.38

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new productsTHAT SMACK OF THE “OLD”

New technologies provide very interesting opportunities to those who want to introduce products that are coherent with the logic of the reduction in the consumption (waste) of resources.Long-life products, which consume less energy and are easily re-usable and repairable (possibly by the users themselves), have a positive effect on consumer loyalty. Companies can get out of the vicious circle of short-life disposable goods (which put the consumer more and more often in the condition of changing brand), aiming instead at the development of new products that respond to the real needs of people today and that for their development require the creation of new professional roles.

Support line, how can I help you? The product you have just bought doesn’t work? Call the toll-free number, and an efficient operator will convince you that it is better to buy a new one since the costs of taking it to an assistance centre, the new parts and the loss of use, will end up costing you more than the new, more efficient model. How much will it cost future generations our transforming into waste those products we have just bought that cannot be repaired? Designing, producing and selling products and not helping our world in the process.

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new life stylesCHANGING OUR BEHAVIOUR AND REGAINING HABITS WHICH GO AGAINST CONSUMER SOCIETY

Good social relationships, also between and within families, and the practice of sobriety, all stimulate the reduction in individualistic attitudes and behaviour and increasing the culture of giving. This determines, especially in large families, the birth of a lifestyle that practices solidarity and other virtues with a view to the common good.

A father to his 9 year-old daughter:“Help your sister tidy up her room”The daughter to her 46 year-old father:“Dad, and why don’t you go and help granny dress herself instead of getting a stranger to do it?”

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APPENDIX 1

the employedIT IS BETTER A LITTLE PAID WORK FOR EVERYONE THAN A LOT FOR A FEW

The increase in the number of employees is for a company a sign of its increased social responsibility.The increase in the number of employees can be better achieved through a reduction in working time per person than through the traditional mechanisms of creating incentives for new places of work connected to the introduction of new products onto the market.

Since they began their emancipation, women have demanded and obtained the same rights as men (that is full-time paid employment for every woman), instead of asking men to work like women (a part-time non-paid job for every man).Rather than doubling paid employment (with the new need for income in order to pay the nursery, baby-sitters, home-carers, pre-cooked meals, cleaners, nurses, plumbers, painters etc..) it would have been wiser to share the paid work (and the relative income) between men and women and to do the same with the unpaid work!!!

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competitive pricesFOR QUALITY AND NOT QUANTITY

Through the improvement in productive processes and the consequent reduction in production costs and, perhaps more importantly, with the introduction of products, productive processes and selling processes that are capable of satisfying new needs, new competitive mechanisms can be triggered in the market, which are not even necessarily correlated to a reduction in price, with interesting prospectives for generating income.

Competitive is the price of ecological, bio-gradable soap sold in pieces that can be cut like salami and reduced into small pieces at home ready for the moment in which it is to be used. There is practically no packaging involved and is so anhydrous (dehydrated) that the equivalent of ten big boxes of soap powder can fit into a shoebox.Competitive is the price of breakfast cereals sold by weight in large supermarket “tubs” in the desired quantity and type without generating box or package waste.

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APPENDIX 1

products that consume and pollute lessonCONSUMERS UNDERSTAND WHAT “COMMON GOOD” MEANS ONLY TOO WELL

Consumers are looking more and more for products that consume and produce less, not just when they are actually destined for use but for the whole product life-cycle. New technologies, when appropriately used, are the principle tools with which to create such products. Obviously, as long as the companies lend an ear to the “real needs” of their future clients.

The used semiconductor photovoltaics, if not correctly disposed of, are heavy polluters. And the consumers are well aware of this.For this same reason this alternative source of energy has not really taken off. And that’s why companies are investing in the experimentation of “bio-gradable” organic photovoltaic cells.

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profitsTHEY ARE GREATER FOR THE COMPANIES THAT KNOW WHERE TO DIRECT THEM: INCLUDING BACK TO THOSE WHO ALLOWED THEM TO ACHIEVE THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE

Reductions in costs and/or increases in revenue certainly contribute to the growth in profits and both (costs and revenue) benefit from people’s work ethic. It would be advisable to invest more of the profits into research and pre-competitive development and the training of workers (cultural growth and learning of new procedures and technologies). There are some even more forward-looking companies that use some of their profits for actions in the community, thus increasing the value of their social budget. An increase in the trust of workers and communities towards a company is an accelerator for any type of profit (economic included).

The Argentinean co-operatives that have taken over the running of the plants of companies that went bankrupt during the economic crash show, even though with limitations, how we can distribute income amongst workers, serenity to families and communities, taxes to the municipalities, and products and services to customers, bringing back to life those companies that had been closed because they were incapable of distributing dividends.

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APPENDIX 1

the social responsibility of the companyTHIS TIME AN ISO “BLUE STAMP” IS NOT ENOUGH

Besides the “traditional” ways in which we pay attention to health and the environment, new solutions which focus on the quality of life of workers (more free time, better employment conditions, better working hours etc…) become real tools in the measuring of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), with positive effects on the company’s image as regards its ethics.

Even today, very few consumers have bothered to read “Policies for Quality” documents, despite them being published time and time again in “Social Budgets”. After the era of the ISO 9001 certification and Quality Certification awarded through the back door, could we end up with similar situations with the SA 8000? No!Consumers are far more sensitive today to themes regarding Company Ethics than they ever were to the themes of the quality of processes.And consumers are already contesting (especially if joined together in pressure groups) the mere facade of some “Social Budgets”.

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RevenueINCREASES MORE AND MORE IF CONSUMERS KNOW HOW IT WILL BE USED

Company revenue increases according to choices regarding competitive strategy (both qualitative and quantitative), including not only pricing strategies but also the ethical value perceived by consumers. Such visibility encourages sales since, through brands, the consumer finds those moral and social values that he or she wants to share. The advantages for companies are not only economic but also patrimonial due to the effect on customer loyalty.

Just think of the degree ceremonies, weddings, confirmations and christenings you can recall in the last 2 years. What present did you give? Was it a famous brand? What “list” did you buy from? And yet for some time now you hear people say “don’t buy anything, we have adopted a child in Africa”, “we are contributing towards the building of a hospital in the Third World, your present will help this needy cause”. On many occasions it is becoming more and more frequent that at such celebrations you may receive, as bonbonnières, examples of local craftwork, of fair trade initiatives, or articles made by an ex-prisoners’ cooperative.

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APPENDIX 1

wealth of goodsTHE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HAVING TO BUY AND KNOWING HOW DO TO

The real poor are the people who don’t know how (or worse, have actively decided, despite having the cognitive, intellectual and physical capability, not to want) to produce anything autonomously: from food, to cleaning and maintenance of the house, to a toy, and so on…This category of poor people does not consider what is being given up in terms of satisfaction, joy, friendship, affection; all the things that are good for your health and that are available for free when self-produced: a jam or pickle, wine, the painting of a room, the washing of your car, the list goes on…These experiences of self-production, which are extremely useful for the new generations, allow us to understand that wealth comes from the lowest possible dependence on the market and are the foundation of a “New Lifestyle” aimed at Sharing, Solidarity and the practice of Giving.

How many of us have built a kite with our son? We experienced a whole afternoon of trial and tribulations, but then the maiden flight filled our son with joy. His kite flew just as well as his friends’ Yet how did we help him get over his crisis when his friends made fun of him because their kites were, aesthetically speaking, more beautiful? We told him to say to them that his father was better and more beautiful than the shop-keeper.

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Demand for products and services that offer the low level consumption of resourcesWE ARE MOVING QUICKLY TOWARDS THE “SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CONSUMER”

Consumers become “critical and responsible”; maybe even before companies. Consumers are keen to understand how consumption affects their well-being and that of others and this determines their choice when buying. This derives from the cultural and practical growth of the “Common Good” and has an immediate impact on the choices companies make as regards to New Technologies, which are at the base of the planning-production of such products or services.

In some towns the school bus has been substituted with the “Foot Bus”.The kids are picked up at the same bus stop but not by a means of transport. To get on the Foot Bus you just have to hold hands and lengthen the human chain. The school bus is only used for students who live a long way from the school. The lower costs (bus drivers, maintenance, fuel, etc…) have been reinvested in high-visibility jackets and road safety courses. The parents who used to accompany their children (every day), now take it in turns (about once every 20 days) to be the ‘driver’ of the foot bus.Obviously there is an iron rule: the Foot Bus runs come rain or shine and whoever has a foot bus pass has to catch it whatever the weather!!!

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APPENDIX 1

wasteWHAT WE MUST NOT PRODUCE ANYMORE

The reduction in waste is the immediate consequence of the reduction in the use of raw materials and energy, as well as the re-use of externality provided by third parties.The progressive reduction of waste leads to beneficial effects for the environment, raises health standards and lowers the costs of production and of those public services connected to waste collection and disposal.

A young father who had just found out that his daughter, at the nursery school canteen, was given a plastic bag containing a knife, fork, spoon, plastic cup and serviette, all “disposable”, gave her a picnic case containing everything she needed and asked the nursery school staff to teach her how to use it. The little girl quickly learnt that her duty, once back home, was to wash everything up and pack it all again ready for the following day.

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exchange of externality between companiesNO BARTERING, NO TAX EVASION, BUT REAL GIVING

One of the main virtuous mechanisms that socially responsible companies use is ‘exchange of externality’, something which is especially efficient when there is reciprocal trust. The exchange of externality between companies, in the production system, corresponds to the style of life of individuals based on the sharing of goods and services, on the culture of giving and the practice of solidarity.This exchange is not bartering, that is the exchange of professional services free of charge (which happens more and more often, for example between a lawyer and an engineer and which also helps the professionals from having to pay taxes), but a free choice that each company makes to the advantage of the community of “companies”.

This is the case of an employee of one company, who travels between two cities, gives a lift (even if it leads to an extra cost to his company in terms of time and variations in route) to the employee of another company who would otherwise have had to use another car and thus increase, with his consumptions, the superfluous GDP.Obviously we are dealing with a real virtuosity only if the second company does not profit by claiming expenses for its employee.50

APPENDIX 1

sobriety and other virtues useful for societyKNOW HOW TO MAKE LIFE CHOICES WITH AUTONOMY AND RESPONSIBILTY

When you live in a big family and have lots of brothers and sisters with whom you can share your toys, clothes, a desk, internet, TV etc; when, thanks to the rapport with other families (for example those of your children’s school friends’), we learn about the family or work problems of other people, we learn more quickly to appreciate the value of what we have and to experience some of the social values that we had forgotten: sobriety, order, attention to the small things in life, solidarity, justice, service, honesty, humility, freedom, responsibility, love,..

To fight against today’s society which, from nursery school onwards, systematically promotes social climbing, competition and individualism, a group of parents got together and organized their own school. With love and a spirit of solidarity, every year they manage to keep the school going and even find the necessary funds to offer scholarships to students who otherwise couldn’t afford to attend the school.

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stressAN ILLNESS WE WERE ASKING FOR

The reduction in time dedicated (directly or indirectly) to paid work and the consequent increase in time for the family, friends, social relationships and so on together with a reduced quest for income, surely leads to a reduction of stress with consequent benefits to our health.

In the past, if a child had a tummy-ache at school, the “school” looked after the child until the end of the lessons, maybe taking him or her out of class and putting a hot water bottle on his or her tummy.Today the children themselves call their parents and/or grandparents on their mobile phones who dash, even from a great distance (10,20 or 30 km) to go and pick them up and take them home or to drop them off at someone else’s “to be looked after”!!! Suspending meetings, work activities, upsetting housework plans, etc…The mobile phone, given to the child so that we might feel more at ease, actually increases our stress.

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APPENDIX 1

work timeWORK LESS, EARN LESS, BE MORE RICH

Consuming less resources also surely means consuming less work time. This can be very advantageous to the worker so long as mechanisms are set in place to reduce the necessity for income. And to trigger those mechanisms, it is sufficient to have more time for the family, community, personal interests, etc… which amongst other things also help reduce the money spent on drugs to alleviate stress. Unoccupied and unemployed workers can also benefit from less work time.

How would we react if, calling a consultant at his office or on his mobile at 12.30, we hear the answering machine with a recorded message saying: “I work from 8.00 to 12.00 and from 18.00 to 20.00; from 12.00 to 18.00 I am not available as I will be busy taking my children to school, having lunch with them and my wife, and helping my children with their homework. Please call back. Thank you.”?

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Finding time for social, political, cultural, spiritual, voluntary and sporting activitiesNOT FINDING TIME MEANS NOT GROWING AS A PERSON

The availability of free time, when taken away from working time, naturally leads to greater participation and is of greater use-value to the community.These activities help us to grow (both in a human and spiritual sense), reduce stress and lead to an even greater desire to find time for the activities themselves.If such activities are carried out thanks to the company for which you work, there is also a greater degree of dedication to your work and a higher level of Social Responsibility in the lifeblood of the organisation itself.

A company in Puglia, which operates within the cut-throat world of ICT has, for several years now, participated (either directly or by providing its workers with opportunities as individuals) in a range of non-profit initiatives on a range of themes. The collaborators of the organisation carry forward the concept of Social Responsibility on behalf of the business throughout the region, building relationships which not only directly benefit the business itself but, more importantly still, serve the community in which they operate.

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APPENDIX 1

time to pay attention to people’s needsINDIFFERENCE IS WHAT KILLS PEOPLE…AND COMPANIES

The company that gives the right attention to its employees usually invests a lot of time listening to their needs. In exchange it receives greater loyalty and effort from its workers.For everyone, the time “freed up” from paid work becomes time that can be given to others: to your neighbour, friend, relative, colleague, employee, boss, client, supplier.

A woman, a manager in a medium-sized company, after a period of full-time work, was allowed to work part-time to look after her elderly mother. When she went back to full-time, she offered to work extra so that one of her employees could work part-time to look after her new-born baby.

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time for the familyA GOOD THAT YOU CANNOT BUY BUT THAT IS THE FIRST RAW MATERIAL IN SOCIETY

The most important objective of reducing work time is to be able to increase time spent with the family. The benefits of such a choice are visible immediately to smart people, and only when they are older do they become clear to those not quite as smart. In reality, everyone benefits from it: wives, husbands, children, friends, colleagues, companies and society, the present generation and those generations to come.

Some simple maths (considering variations in life-expectancy rates, schooling levels, methods of study, ways and hours of work, housing and the composition of the nuclear family, how time is spent when not working, rest, etc..) shows that the generation of our grandparents spent around 40% of their lives with their parents. Our parents around 25%. Our generation about 15%. Our children can expect an estimated 10%, if that.Moreover, the generation of our grandparents spent a good 40% of their lives listening to and speaking with their parents. Our children? Watching TV.

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APPENDIX 1

time to fulfil the educative role for our childrenTHE FACT THAT THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE CHOICE OF NOT TRYING TO FIND MORE AND MORE

The duty of bringing up one’s own children, especially in a society in which everyone (schools, television, books, internet, etc...), through continuous exemplifications, gives models, often bad ones, to be followed (all impregnated by the dominant individualistic culture), is a great duty that requires time, preparation and a responsibility that we can delegate to no one. Those parents who interpret this role with dignity render a service to the entire society.

“True, your father and mother are never at home, but with the money they earn they enable you to go to college, to study abroad, and they buy you everything you need for your cultural growth, including satellite television. What more do you want for your education? What a monster you have become, just like your mum and dad wanted”

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ethical visibility and company imageIF WE WORK FOR THE COMMON GOOD, WE LIVE LONGER

Both the tangible actions, undertaken by companies in the direction of the good of people and the environment (synthesized in the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility), and actions oriented towards the exchange of externality with and between companies and subjects, contribute to the improvement in the ethical visibility and image of the company that practises them.The more visible companies are, because they are ethically correct, the more greatly they are rewarded by the market.

A multinational company decided, following a boycott by consumer associations which had not even led to any significant drop in sales, to change its production strategy in line with the demands of the associations. Why did it decide to do so? Its employees felt ashamed to be a part of it: the company was losing a lot more than a percentage of its turnover.

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APPENDIX 1

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APPENDIX 2

From Gross Domestic ProductTo Gross Domestic Well-being

The man who in his stubborn recklessnessobstinately insists in wanting to find in ambition

or in pleasure his supreme appeasement or compliment, takes great strides

on the road to desperationJosef Pieper

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APPENDIX 2

FROM THE UNBRIDLED DESIRE TO HAVETO WAYS OF LIVING THAT CAN HELP INCREASE THE GDW

The phenomenon of consumerism of which we are protagonists, has, for some time, seen us all taking part in a race to have rather than to be.It is undeniable how the social context created by globalisation influences, more and more, every day, our very lifestyles.The burning desire to possess in order to consume and enjoy ourselves while consuming, prevents us from recognizing and clearly distinguishing our real needs and the forms, old and new, that may satisfy them.We all have an obsession with innovating, not to add to the greater well-being (individual or social), but to increase the availability of goods and their excessive consumption.

Products become cheap, fast, safe, easy to use, healthy. Small and light, and even environmentally-friendly. So why place limits? The culture of consuming does not foresee, does not acknowledge, does not hypothesize, any limits.3

Everything is unlimited, everything is endless. Including the environment, natural resources, energy.The cultural challenge, which today consumerism imposes on us, must be faced by all of us with greater decisiveness and determination, especially if we consider the future generations who risk having to live in a plundered environment because of those very lifestyle choices we make today aimed at excessive and disorderly consumption.

3 François Schneider, “L’effetto rimbalzo” in Obiettivo Decrescita, Bologna, 2005

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We are, of course, talking of a real cultural challenge, and nothing less, that has to be won on all levels since we can no longer even rely on schools and universities, in that even these are busy teaching our children the rules of the market, the criteria of efficiency, to the detriment of people-building.It seems that such an imbalance between the desire (the provision and acquisition) for technical skills and moral growth represents the crucial question in the crisis of our age.

A challenge

[…] linked to the sphere of behaviours and lifestyles, individual and communitarian. Responsible consumption, personal involvement and self-limitation (Langer), spiritual perfectioning (Tolstoy), go in the direction of sobriety and austerity in the fight against waste etc. The idea is that of being able to “de-colonize” the mind of consumeristic messages and recognize our own real and genuine needs and desires, in such a way as to escape the conditioning of the market.4

We need, therefore, raw material goods that we cannot do without and that build the basic conditions for our existence; these goods are absolutely indispensable for eating, communicating, associating and being able to develop that human and spiritual dimension that is in all of us. Man, in fact, has needs, certainly, that are not limited to just “having” since his nature and his vocation are in an indivisible relation with God the creator.Man needs moral resources,

[…] which are, today, the most important raw materials for the existence of the present and to make possible a future in which it is still worth being Man.5

4 Paolo Cacciari, “Aprile”, June insert, Rome, 2006

5 Joseph Ratzinger, contribution to the conference of the eighth centenary of the birth of Saint Anthony of Padova, 1995.62

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We have to operate a cultural choice and learn, as soon as possible, to practise new lifestyles

[...] inspired by sobriety, temperance, and self-discipline, on a personal as well as social level, to free ourselves from the logic of mere consumption and to promote forms of agricultural and industrial production that respect the order of creation and that satisfy all our primary needs.6

Amongst the few proposals that are moving in this direction, that of a “happy de-growth” distinguishes itself. Elaborated by Maurizio Pallante, it can be synthesized thus: increasing the production of goods (meaning capacity, order, moderation, sobriety) and reducing the production of products (incapacity, disorder, immoderation, exaggeration).

The path towards a more balanced rapport between things and their consumption is very much like a “de-teaching” and a “disintoxication”. The change we need is not simply subjective, in the sense that it does not simply take place in the mind of the individual person. Rather it is something that happens in the relations and interactions between persons and subjects. The problem seems to me therefore to recreate forms of sociality that weaken the tendency to consume and that strengthen other sources of identity and confidence. We have to build a sense of limitation and incorporated moderation, which are intrinsic to our way of life, of relating to people, of defining ourselves both socially and culturally…Because we want to counteract the limitless desire for economic wealth and status, with a just as strong desire for a wealth in our own existence, our relationships, our affections, the pleasure of living together and not in competition with others […]7

And that is the desire for GDW.

6 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 486, Rome 2004. See www.vatican.va

7 Marco Deriu, “Aprile”, June insert, Rome, 200563

It will be, therefore, our new lifestyle that will determine the future choices of the production of products (that is, products and services that pass through a commercial intermediation) and of goods, consumption, savings and investments.

It’s good for all of us to remember that we are capable people, while consumerism is for incapable people; because the latter, not knowing how to do anything, need to buy everything and everything that is ready to use (frozen food, homogenized food, etc.). Real wealth continues to be that of knowing how to do things and not that based on having the money to buy things.

Every one of us is rich in proportion to the number of things we can do without.8

Everyone (first and foremost politicians) speaks of growth, but of what? What we have to understand, having had no other reply, is that they all mean, rather banally, the GDP, (the indicator that measures the monetary value of exchanged goods), and that in reality everyone is talking about supporting, with adequate resources from the State, that unstoppable process of production and accumulation of products and services. All of those who govern us, and who have governed us, want to propose us a “society of growth”; but is it sustainable?

A reply that we can borrow from Serge Latouche is:

The society of growth is not auspicious for at least three reasons: because inequality and injustice increase, because it spreads a largely illusionary well-being, and because it does not offer a chance of convivial living even for the “well-off”. It is an anti-society that is diseased by its own wealth, and the improvement in the standard of living, in which most people in the north believe, appears ever more illusionary. Undoubtedly, many people can spend more to buy the goods and services offered by the market, but they forget to calculate a series of

8 Aphorism by Henry David Thoreau, (1817-1862)64

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added costs that take on different forms, not always quantifiable in monetary terms, linked to the impoverishment of the quality of the air, water, environment, expenditure for “compensation” and maintenance imposed by modern life (drugs, transport, entertainment), or determined by the increase in the cost of articles that have become rare (water in a bottle, energy, greenery!). Indeed, whilst there is growth on the one hand, there is loss on the other. In other words, in these conditions growth is a myth, even within the imagination of the economy of well-being, if not of the society of consumption!9

All those generous and altruistic politicians, of the centre-left and centre-right, want “happiness” for us. But, careful, for them it is based on the GDP. Their love for citizens is based on making available an excessive quantity of goods of every kind; goods to consume that we will soon replace with other goods that will give us a false sensation of satisfaction that will last less than the previous time.Enlightened politicians are the ones we choose!In future we will have to choose not those that promise a growth in the GDP but those that work for a growth in the GDW, which means the well-being for everyone and which is achieved by eliminating the superfluous GDP.

9 Serge Latouche "Le Monde Diplomatique", Paris, November, 200365

FROM A SHORT-SIGHTED COMPANY TO A SOCIALLY-AWARE COMPANY THAT CONTRIBUTES TO THE COMMON GOOD

Natural resources

Resources in nature are quantitatively scarce and this implies, by necessity, that every single economic subject, as for every society, must come up with a strategy to use them in the most rational way, by the logic dictated by the principle of economy. On this there depend both the effective solution to the economic problem in general (and, fundamentally, the limitation of means with respect to individual and social needs as well as private and public needs) and the comprehensive, structural and functional efficiency of the entire economic system. Such efficiency directly summons the responsibility and capacity of various subjects, such as the market, the State and intermediate social bodies.10

Thus, also for companies, reducing consumption (energy, raw materials, etc.) is not only a necessity in order to be more competitive as regards price, but also a duty. Carrying out the activity of production in an efficient way is a duty for companies, in that they are called to avoid the waste of resources. Why? Because it is not acceptable, and it is morally illicit, to have economic growth obtained to the disadvantage of entire populations and above all future generations.

Companies start from the presupposition, shown to be erroneous, that there is a limitless quantity of energy and resources to be used. Many believe that their regeneration is possible in the near future. All, or almost all, overlook the negative effects of the manipulation of the natural order. Every action of a company should take into account the environment and calculate the relative costs. Companies should be

10 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no.346, Roma, 2004. See www.vatican.va66

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well aware that natural resources are not limitless and that some are not renewable. The present pace of exploitation seriously compromises the availability of some natural resources in the present and in the future.The ecological problem, which we can all see with our own eyes, requires, in order to be resolved, that human activity, and in particular its economic activity, has a greater and more serious respect for the environment, even to the point of giving up those forms of development that prevent us from protecting it.

Creative Human Capital

This seems to be the best definition that the world of companies gives to workers. But can human beings be reduced simply to the concept of “factors of production”?Even if many entrepreneurs recognise how useful an integral development of the human person is to the greater efficiency of the company (which includes the work dimension and at the same time other dimensions such as those related to the contemplative and affective), they do not always make the best, most coherent, choices when drawing up plans for development and innovation.

Unfortunately, still today, in alternative to concrete actions that would permit the respect of human dignity of workers, entrepreneurs and managers blindly continue to direct their investments (both in terms of time and money) to the achievement of efficiency objectives based on external image, to the revalorisation of capital, to new means of production, and so on; in short, they continue to be interested only in the economic aims of the company overlooking the aims of the people.Their blindness prevents them from seeing in people the real patrimony of the company as well as the critical factor for success. And this is because people’s creativity is not reflected in the objective, technical and operative aspects of work; in the knowledge of workers,

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in their capacity to relate with others, to learn, to deal with novelty, to know how to work together and to share and reach common objectives.Still today, when we speak of production, everyone thinks about the object, and not the subject.We all know that the objective of a company must be achieved in economic terms and criteria yet, at the same time, we all recognize that those authentic values that allow the concrete development of the person and the society should not be overlooked. In this personalistic and communitarian vision,

The company cannot be considered only as a “company of capital”; it is, at the same time, a “company of persons”, and those who participate in it, in different ways and with different responsibilities, are not only those who provide the capital necessary for its activity but also those who collaborate with it through their work.11

The environment

Not always do the State and/or pertinent authorities, in their specific territory, carry out the urgent task of offering their citizens the guarantee of not being exposed to pollutant agents or toxic wastes. The State should, with concrete actions, prevent or discourage, by increasing fiscal pressure, those activities of the company that lead to the degradation of the atmosphere and biosphere and that damage our health. Health and the environment, to be protected, require that companies allow a dialogue between innovation and ethics.

Not always is it realized when taking decisions on development that the environment is in fact a “resource” and at the same time “home” for all people. The possibility of eliminating factors of pollution and of ensuring adequate hygienic and healthy conditions for people that

11 Pope John Paul II, reading from Centesimus annus, 43, Rome 199168

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work in the community that hosts them is within the capability of all companies.

A company that is respectful of man and the environment is a healthy company (both morally and socially) because it does not follow the objective of profits at any cost. Indeed, besides its typically economic function, a company also carries out a social function, because it is the place where occasions for meeting and collaboration are generated, as well as the growth and recognition of the value of the people involved. The economic dimension of a company is therefore the condition for the achievement of economic objectives as well as social and moral objectives and these objectives should be followed together.

Technology

The State still does not encourage enough research into innovation that may be able to reduce the impact caused by production and consumption on the environment. Never before, in fact, has the role of technology been so determinant in view of the authentically socially-aware and integral development of humanity.

Technology exists that pollutes, but also that is able to de-pollute; technology that wastes, but also that helps save; technology that makes slaves, but also technology that renders us free. It all depends on us, to know how to choose the “good” one that we want for our well-being.More generally, almost all technologies can be used for good purposes. A hoe is an instrument conceived to work the land, even though it can be used to crack someone’s head open; a machine-gun cannot be used even occasionally to work the land, but the technology that is at the base of the production of a machine gun can be usefully used to improve the functional characteristics of the hoe.

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The use of technology, in fact, must have an integral vision of man and so must be used to give an answer to the demand for the quality of the goods to be produced and to be consumed, to the quality of services to be exploited, to the quality of the environment and to the need to safeguard our health.

Corporate Social Responsibility is a serious thing. It screams out for a company to be a socially-aware community, not closed within its corporate interests, and must tend towards a social ecology of work and contribute to the common good also through the safeguarding of the natural environment.

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FROM THE VARIOUS FORMS OF INTEMPERANCE TO THE SOBRIETY OF CONSUMPTION AND TOWARDS A BETTER USE OF TIME

Goods

We live in a society that has lost the sense of moderation and that lives alongside a new discipline: that of intemperance.The excessive consumption of goods, as a response to the unbridled search for “pleasure” at all costs has taken over the centre of our social life and is now becoming the only value of society, subordinate to no other.Ignoring the ethical and religious dimension, the whole dominant social and cultural system has limited itself to the production of goods, a condition to which it has reduced information, culture and spirituality.

We have reached hypertrophy in the production of objects. And so it happens that the product-good becomes ever more a substitute for what we really want, a better quality of life…The key words that should characterize sustainable development on a social level seem to me then to be at least three: quality, slowness, contemplation…Contemplation is perhaps the most important characteristic of a sustainable society that contrasts the hypertrophy. Our economies have developed with nature and things a rapport based on appropriation and use. The economy of sustainable development must rediscover and appreciate the contemplative dimension of the relationships between human beings and the world… satisfied the demand for food and dwelling, as well as traditional industrial products and, more generally, material goods that perhaps just now tend to get in the way, a part at least of the demand could be directed towards other kinds of needs: art, culture, love for nature, landscape, monuments, natural parks, or towards a greater quality of human relations.12

12 Mercedes Bresso: Per un Economia Ecologica, Milan, 199771

In other words, the GDW.

Agriculture

Also in this area, the intemperance of production and the global economy have transformed the natural process into one that is exclusively quantitative. If that were not enough, thanks to consumerism we now have goods that have been genetically modified which, to be produced, need innovative and expensive production processes. Our unbridled desire to consume these “rare” goods prevents us from recognising the serious damage to the environment and health which is a consequence of such production. The politicians, greedy too for these novelties and blinded by the growth in the GDP, do not see how much public expenditure is needed to repair all the damage done.Is it so hard to understand that the same amount of money, which we give to the State through taxes and which is needed to sustain public spending as well as repair the damage done (thus increasing the GDP), could be used to help the GDW grow through incentives for entrepreneurial activity, including family businesses, based on organic and biological production? And why not give incentives to

a culture that renders agricultural work remunerative and gratifying…offering subsidies for education, loans at zero interest for the acquisition of land and technical assistance during re-conversion from chemical production to organic production.13

Work

We are now witnessing a new form of exploitation of workers; but the exploiter this time is not the employer. We have a new boss: consumerism. And this is surely much more worrying; the “enemy” to fight is stronger than the previous one since this time we are 13 Richard Heinberg, from www.aspoitalia.net, August, 200572

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completely subjugated: it has completely taken over us and enslaved us.Scientific and technological progress are per se sources of development and progress, since they are useful in reducing the labour time needed for production work (increase in productivity). All too often, however, they are used by workers, who are now victims in the cogs of the economy, to look for other work to do in their “free-time” in order to earn more money (increase in profitability)

“professional success at any cost is at the centre of a new scenario where only the epic exists, and that is the dream of unbridled success; while the ethic, that is the giving of human and supernatural value to everyday circumstances, takes a backseat.”14

Workers ask for overtime or at the end of one job they begin another. If we are affected by stress, hypertension, if we need a doctor or medicine then it’s all ok: these things help the GDP to grow.

These new enslavements, from “super-work” to “career-work” or “extra-work” are all time-guzzlers and steal time from the more human and necessary dimensions of the person. Moreover, they contribute to taking away work from those looking for it or from those who are subject to the excessive flexibility of work which renders family life precarious and at times impossible and which has heavy repercussions on the unitary perception of one’s own existence and on the stability of family relationships.

People have forgotten that time, the gift of God, has been given to us so that we may be better with others and for others. We must not forget to use it for social, political and cultural activities; to do voluntary work, practise sport, for our physical and spiritual well-being.

14 Javier Echevarria, La Stampa, 25 June, Torino, 200573

FROM THE ABSENCE OF FAMILY LIFE TO A COMMUNITY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND WELL-BEING OF FAMILY MEMBERS AND OF SOCIETY

The love between husband and wife is compromised every day by the previously mentioned forms of intemperance (products and work) and by the massive doses of egoism taken along with the frequenting of consumerism.The logic of ego-centrism and self-affirmation have usurped the logic of love and solidarity. Obviously with these premises, the couple are ready to bring a child into the world. And obviously, as soon as possible, that is as soon as the baby is born, they are ready to leave the child in the care of others, which in the best of cases means the grandparents and the least worst case a baby-sitter who is also a family member or at least trusted. If they leave the child at a nursery, it is better as this helps increase the GDP. At this point a valid question would be: Who is going to bring up the child? What social values will he or she learn if not those of solitude and abandonment that have characterized his or her life during the first few months from birth? And what of solidarity? And strength? None of this, because everything is owed them, everything is provided without any effort: the parents, who believe in the growth of the GDP, pay substitutes (full-time school, broadband internet, satellite TV, etc) which are nothing other than products. And bringing into the world a second child? Not a chance, there’s no time to bring up the first one and hardly enough even to be with your spouse!

It is certain that many of us have no problem seeing how every person is recognised, welcomed and respected in his or her dignity, thanks to the love between each member of the family.And it is from love that those relationships are born, lived selflessly, which soon transform into the capacity to welcome, to be selflessly

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helpful, to give a generous and loving service, to live according to a deep solidarity.

Unfortunately, as Mother Teresa said

Today many young people are on the streets because they feel a lack of love and family happiness: they are hungry for love, but they are left to their own devices because their parents are too busy...

...helping increase the GNP.

Our new god, Consumerism, which leads us to “super-work”, to “career-work”, to “extra-work”, and so to double the effort (physical and psychological), has forced us to reduce the time dedicated to the family. The State, the unions, and employers’ associations are also to blame, doing nothing to promote labour laws and policies that favour family life.Family and work life are closely linked and significantly influence each other in several ways. The conditions of unemployment and the different forms and characteristics of “bad” work have material and moral repercussions on the family and, as well as causing tensions within the family and crises between couples, negatively influence the productivity of the workers.Is it so hard to understand? Favouring a good family life means having more serene, more motivated people. What are managers waiting for to create organizational structures and production processes that favour family life?

The family, which is born out of a marriage (civil or religious) between a man and a woman and that is founded on the intimate communion of the life and love of the couple, possesses a specific social dimension in that it is the first place for interpersonal relationships. The family, the primary and vital cell of society, is the prototypical

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institution of every social order, the gymnasium of life where we acquire the “soft-skills” needed for modern life.

In these gyms the instructors, trainers, and educators are the parents who must have the time to carry out their duty without delegating it to the “goods” on show on television. Television, which itself is a product in front of which parents leave their children as they go off to work hard in order to buy a new, more technological television (or several televisions, one for each room), will teach their children to ask them for more money for new products (games, video games, internet etc.). And if these children, on account of these “new educators”, need a doctor or medicine to treat their solitude, all well and good: for these go towards increasing GDP.

Through the educational work of parents, the family forms people in the fullness of their dignity according to their dimensions, including the social one. Because the family constitutes

a community of love and solidarity which in a unique way is suitable for the teaching and transmitting of cultural, ethical, social, spiritual and religious values that are essential for the development and the well-being of its members and of the society.15

Children are helped in the family to grow in love, liberty and responsibility, premises that are indispensable for the taking on of any kind of duty in the world of work or in society.The quality of the workers of the future (those of the virtual era) is ensured providing that, at school age – with the words and testimony of the parents – they have been educated towards dialogue, meeting, sociality, legality, sacrifice, study, housework, and solidarity. All this helps the GDW to grow.

15 Carta dei diritti della famiglia, Preface, Punto E, Rome, 1983. See www.vatican.va76

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Our society, which is oriented prevalently, if not exclusively, by criteria of efficiency and productivity, and with GDP as the indicator of well-being – puts in serious difficulty the families that try, every day, to build a network of interpersonal relationships, both within and outside the family. We are now facing a society that is heading towards self-destruction since it does not realize that without these families (which are a primary and irreplaceable school of sociality, as well as a valid example and stimulus for wider communitarian relationships) it has no future.

The State and Local Authorities now behave, in their relations with the family, as they would with a company. They do not know the principle of support and subtract from the family those duties that the family can perform well, by itself or with other families. Why? It is simple: these duties when carried out by third parties increase the GDP.Is it so hard to remember that the first economy (from the Greek οικοσ (oikos) for home and νομοσ (nomos) for norm, which is to say “administration of the household”) was born out of work done in the home? And that the home has been for a long time, and still is, in many places, the unit of production and centre of life? How are the goods and services produced in families and between families considered? Are they GDP? Is the solidarity that parents, grandparents, children, relatives, family friends, give to each other by offering time and services to help each other, economic life? Yes; it is economic life in the original sense of the term, not in the one deformed by the consumeristic logic imposed by the market.It is economic life in the sharing and in the solidarity between generations. It is the economy of the GDW.

For this reason it is not possible to sustain the idea that one can rely solely on the market for supplies, in the form of products, in all the categories of products and services. Those who believe so have a reductive vision of the person and of society. There are very important human needs to satisfy for which there is a need for goods that,

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by their nature, are not and cannot be simply products,16

non-negotiable according to the rule of “exchange of equivalents” and the logic of the contract, typical of the market. And is the work of a parent aimed at and dedicated to the service of the quality of life of a family worth more or less than a manager engaged in “super-work”? For those who govern us, it is worth nothing; thus the work of the housewife (manager of the family) is not remunerated. Nor can it be detracted from the partner’s income tax to an equivalent value. So, also in this case, the logic of the market wins: if I produce and exchange, with monetary transactions, products and services, that’s ok; if I contribute to the growth of people (good future citizens), I am totally ignored.Is it better to pay and reward with professional success a magistrate parent who sends to prison (GDP) the children that he and other parents did not have the time to educate because they are busy with “career-work”, or pay and reward a parent who brings up his or her children who will not crowd our prisons (GDW)?

For the State – and unfortunately for us – it is better to de-tax the costs of house-maids, baby-sitters, home-carers etc. And have “non parents” (or absent, weak parents who are permissive about everything, incapable of defining rules, of giving directions), which help increase GDP, rather than having parents that contribute to the good (GDW) of the Nation.

16 Pope John Paul II, Centesimus annus, 40, Rome, 199178

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FROM THE ABSENCE OF PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL LIFE TO THE CAPACITY OF GIVING FOR FREE

First of all we need to

convince the politicians that democracy and participation are not a price to pay but are the salt of the earth, because only the populations in all their diversity possess the resources and energies necessary to resolve their problems.17

Secondly, if we are not able to think that many goods and services must be self-produced, then it becomes very difficult to think of the principle of daily subsistence.

We know well that to defend the principle of daily subsistence means increasing the responsibility of citizens in their “playing a part”, an active part, in the social and political reality of the Nation. So politicians must work to protect citizens from the abuses of the market (public or private) and to help each individual to develop their tasks autonomously.This role for the politicians and local administrators is necessary so that every person, family or aggregation that possesses something original to offer can make it available to the community (GDW).

To help increase the GDW it is also necessary to live, at the same time, the principle of solidarity.

Unfortunately we are too busy getting into debt (just like the State does) with banks and financial institutions to buy goods for our own satisfaction and we do not have the time to think of others. Anyway,

17 Giovanna Ricoveri, “Aprile”, June insert, Rome , 2006 79

who cares? We must be doing something right: our debts (mortgages on future earnings) help increase GDP!!!For many the term “solidarity” is no longer in their dictionary, but for others it expresses (in the ensemble of links that unite people and social groups together) the space offered to their own liberty for the common good.

Only in this way can we spread the idea of wealth as no longer being made of cement, asphalt, plastics, objects, but of services, information, and production that is low in weight but high in value. In a society of this type, the satisfaction of collective needs – environment, health, culture, information – will be at the heart of a new lifestyle and new work opportunities, as, in the past, were the car, electrical appliances, and the house. There is already a huge demand for these collective goods which, if satisfied, can guarantee a lot of work, and highly professionalized work at that: I think of a recovery of the territorial environment...of a new collective mobility.18

The desire to live according to solidarity is born out of the realization that we are in debt to the society in which we live: We are in debt to those conditions that allow us to live well and to all that heritage that makes up our culture, to scientific and technological knowledge, and to material and immaterial goods; in short to all that patrimony that humanity has produced.

Unfortunately, egotistic thinking prevents us from remembering that this debt is paid off with our social actions (even if it helps GDW to grow rather than GDP), with our efforts in various voluntary organizations, in those associations that promote research and all those services and the attention that goes into helping those who live in doubt, in solitude and abandonment, and to those who live in poverty, to orphans, the disabled, the sick, the elderly, to those in mourning. Other significant forms of solidarity are those of welcoming, fostering or adoption, and communication, when we are able to get institutions to carry out their specific duties.

18 Massimo Serafini, “Aprile”, June, Rome, 200680

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FROM “ALL FOR ME” TOWARDS THE COMMON GOOD

Are the things that each of us legitimately possesses to be considered exclusively our own or can they be made available, and to be of use, to others? Has it ever entered our heads that we could also act for the social good and not only for our own advantage or for that of our family? If for “common good” we mean the together of those conditions of social life that allow us and the collectivity to rapidly achieve the best type of well-being, why don’t we make the effort to ask companies not to produce products that damage us?

To achieve the common good we need the help of everybody: from citizens to politicians to entrepreneurs. No one is excluded. Everyone has to collaborate according to their capacity and means.The common good cannot be achieved if among the subjects meant to achieve it there are cunning people with reductive visions which lead them to biased advantages. It is true however that the achieving of the common good is good for everyone especially for those who have worked towards it.

The success of those cunning people does not last long, but it does do damage to many. Companies that think they are cunning do not last long; they make a lot of money quickly but then go bankrupt. Even cunning politicians do not last long. They briefly achieve a consensus but then fail. Rather like the GDP.

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How might we be able to move away from a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) culture and start to think instead in terms of GDW (Gross Domestic Well-being)? A few easy steps every day are all that is required: actions as citizens, as parents, as business people, as children, as educators, as politicians. Behaviour that doesn’t require great effort, doesn’t mean giving up what you most value and doesn’t mean making any great sacrifice. It only requires will-power and knowledge. To overcome the vicious circle of superfluous GDP all we need do is reflect on our actions, avoid wastage and put into action a conscious consumerism based on the resources we have and the needs of the generations that are to follow in our footsteps.By using the GDW map, included at the back of this book, choose a pathway and you will discover that every choice generates a virtuous circle - directed towards real well-being. The Case Cards, both simple and fun to use, will help you to understand how easy it really is to contribute towards GDW. Search for other positive effects which may not be planned out on the map, come up with your own new routes, contribute new elements and connect with those that already exist. Create: go to www.depiliamoci.it and play an active role in helping the map to grow.

THE GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT is an open source experiment of shared ideas – both old and new – but also a route of integrations between the printed word and new networks.THE GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT is true to itself: it is a COPYLEFT instrument.

Roberto LorussoEntrepreneur and consultant for innovation and life-long learning for more that 25 years. He projects and co-ordinates – for public institutions and companies – aspiring programmes for organisational change through techniques of creative participation and system dynamics. He is married with 5 children.Nello De PadovaConsultant for both public and private organisations for Innovation Technology and organisational processes. He is the cultural secretary of the Puglia Constellation Consortium which brings together over 70 companies in Puglia open to themes of Corporate Social Responsibility. He is married with 2 children.