WEBVTT

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Just over a mile away from here

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in Edinburgh's old town

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is Panmure House.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Panmure House

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
was the home of the world-renowned
Scottish economist Adam Smith.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In his important work
"The Wealth of Nations,"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Adam Smith argued,
amongst many other things,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that the measurement of a country's wealth

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
was not just its gold and silver reserves.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It was the totality of the country's
production and commerce.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I guess it was one of the earliest
descriptions of what we now know today

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
as Gross Domestic Product, GDP.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Now, in the years since, of course,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that measurement
of production and commerce,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
GDP, has become ever more important,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to the point that today,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and I don't believe that this
is what Adam Smith would have intended,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that it is often seen as
the most important measurement

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of a country's overall success.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And my argument today

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is that it is time for that to change.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
You know, what we choose to measure
as a country matters.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It really matters, because
it drives political focus,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it drives at public activity,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and against that context,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I think the limitations of GDP
as a measurement of a country's success

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is all too obvious.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
You know, GDP measures
the output of all of our work,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but it says nothing about
the nature of that work,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
about whether that work
is worthwhile or fulfilling.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It puts a value, for example,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
on illegal drug consumption,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but not on unpaid care.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It values activity in the short term
that boosts the economy

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
even if that activity is hugely damaging

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to the sustainability of our planet

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in the longer term.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And when we reflect on the past decade
of political and economic upheaval,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of growing inequalities,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and when we look ahead to the challenges
of the climate emergency,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
increasing automation,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
an aging population,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
then I think the argument for the case
for a much broader definition

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of what it means to be successful
as a country, as a society,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is compelling, and increasingly so.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And that is why Scotland in 2018

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
took the lead, took the initiative
in establishing a new network

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
called the Wellbeing Economy
Governments group,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
bringing together as founding members

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the countries of Scotland, Iceland,
and New Zealand for obvious reasons.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We're sometimes called the SIN countries,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
although our focus is very much
on the common good.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And the purpose of this group
is to challenge that focus

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
on the narrow measurement of GDP,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to say that, yes, economic growth matters.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It is important.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But it is not all that is important.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And growth in GDP should not be pursued

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
at any or all cost.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In fact, the argument of that group

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is that the goal, the objective
of economic policy

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
should be collective wellbeing:

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
how happy and healthy a population is,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
not just how wealthy a population is.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And I will touch on the policy
implications of that in a moment,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but I think particularly
in the world we live in today

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it has a deeper resonance.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
You know, when we focus on wellbeing,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
we start a conversation

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that provokes profound
and fundamental questions.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
What really matters to us in our lives?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
What do we value in
the communities we live in?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
What kind of country,
what kind of society,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
do we really want to be?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And when we engage people
in those questions,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in finding the answers to those questions,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
then I believe that we have
a much better chance

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of addressing the alienation
and disaffection from politics

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that is so prevalent in so many countries

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
across the developed world today.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In policy terms, this journey
for Scotland started back in 2007

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
when we published what we call
our National Performance Framework,