New Zealand’s Next Liberal Milestone: A Budget Guided by ‘Well-Being’

WOW!! See, another world is truly possible! Let’s be inspired and do this — alleviate suffering and promote well-being! Such a radical idea! This is why I’m so proud and grateful to be a radical who is radically embracing visions and actions that are outside of what we’re taught to believe is normal and just the way it is. NO! I don’t buy that we humans are just doomed to be violent, greedy, selfish, asleep, racist, addicted, warring, projecting, disconnected, and on and on. NO!! We are wholly capable of generosity, reverence, wisdom, kindness, compassion, connection, courage, and love. We can transform our trajectory to one which moves us more fully into our Sacred Selves. May it be so! 🙏🙏🙏 🙏💜 Molly
 

Riane Eisler Center for Partnership Studies:

Social Wealth Economic Indicators are designed to craft and measure policies like these. More countries should use them! http://caringeconomy.org/newindicators/

"Under New Zealand’s revised policy, all new spending must advance one of five government priorities: improving mental health, reducing child poverty, addressing the inequalities faced by indigenous Maori and Pacific islands people, thriving in a digital age, and transitioning to a low-emission, sustainable economy."

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand, whose government is requiring new spending to fit one of five categories promoting “well-being.”

By Charlotte Graham-McLay

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — It’s being called the next big move by a New Zealand government seen by progressives around the world as a beacon in increasingly populist times: a national budget whose spending is dictated by what best encourages the “well-being” of citizens.

That means that as the center-left government of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern sets its priorities in the budget that will be unveiled on May 30, it is moving away from more traditional bottom-line measures like productivity and economic growth and instead focusing on goals like community and cultural connection and equity in well-being across generations.

“This budget is a game-changing event,” said Richard Layard, a professor at the London School of Economics who is an expert on life satisfaction across populations.  

New Zealand is not the only country that is starting to rethink whether blunt economic measurements like gross domestic product are the best gauge of a nation’s success. But, Dr. Layard said, there has been “no other major country that has so explicitly adopted well-being as its objective.”

As a major example of what that new framework will produce, Ms. Ardern unveiled on Sunday the biggest spending proposal to date in her coming budget: more than $200 million to bolster services for victims of domestic and sexual violence.

It is “the biggest single investment ever” by a New Zealand government on the issue, Ms. Ardern said at an event showcasing the initiative, and will tackle one of the nation’s “most disturbing, most shameful” problems.

Under New Zealand’s revised policy, all new spending must advance one of five government priorities: improving mental health, reducing child poverty, addressing the inequalities faced by indigenous Maori and Pacific islands people, thriving in a digital age, and transitioning to a low-emission, sustainable economy.

Please continue this article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/world/asia/new-zealand-wellbeing-budget.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage&fbclid=IwAR0qJfgWB5J0PySN6SCsJJjJS1w5VgXCOy_yMaeINh80wkZcQrsjCfu8aEw