Are things really changing in the West in a way that most politicians, and
other leading lights, have not yet realised?

------------------------------------------------
Progress and wellbeing: more than GDP and tax cuts
Published Tuesday, 15th January, 2008
by John Langmore and John Wiseman
Why does economic growth alone no longer seem to be enough to guarantee
electoral support? The election results and a poll by the Swinburne
Institute for Social Research taken after the election show that there was a
reaction amongst many voters against the preoccupation with the economy
during the last couple of decades.

Economic growth is not what determines economic security for most people.
Pollsters report that many people feel that obsession with the economy has
marginalised attention to their concerns about health, education and the
environment.

There is growing recognition that economic activity is a means to the end of
human wellbeing rather than an end in itself, and that the economy should be
the servant of society rather than society the servant of the economy.

Economic versus Macro Finance
I am wondering if the Authors are falling into the same trap in using the
word and phrases with 'Economics' inaccurately. It seems that more often
than not politicians, commentators and Journos use 'Economic' when they are
really only referring to finance.

Economics has always been a social science. In general terms being 'the
means to apply finance to community benefit'. In that regard much of what is
termed here as 'Wellbeing' seems to actually be remarkably similar to
Economics?

I think it is also interesting to note, that despite academic criticism,
(and hence it being 'unfashionable') of Maslow's 'Hierarchy of Human Needs',
what the electorates across the globe are depicting is exactly his hierarchy
in practice. That is with growing affluence, society is indeed, saying we
have satified the lower order needs of food, shelter, security, ie, all the
things that the materialistic aspect of finance bring, further that
replicating these brings no increase in wellbeing or happiness, now we want
better community, and self actualisation.