On the fourth of January, 1934,
A young man delivered a report
to the United States Congress
that 80 years on,
still shapes the lives of everyone in this room today.
Still shapes the lives of everyone on this planet.
That young man wasn't a politician,
he wasn't a businessman,
a civil rights activist,
or a faith leader.
He was the most unlikely of heroes,
an economist.
(Laughter)
His name was Simon Kuznets
and the report that he delivered was called,
"National Income, 1929-32"
Now, you might think that
this is a rather dry and dull report,
and you're absolutely right.
It's dry as a bone.
But this report is the foundation
of how, today, we judge the success of countries.
What we know best as Gross Domestic Product,
or GDP.
GDP has defined and shaped our lives
for the last 80 years.
And today I want to talk about
a different way to measure the success of countries.