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Peter Burgess and Clif Carothers

A WhiteHouse.gov discussion group ... Ironically, Trickle Down Economics Trickled Down America's Future

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

White House Ironically, Trickle Down Economics Trickled Down America's Future Peter RE: 'I argue that when we start to measure valuadd (and value destruction) and start to hold organizations and decision makers accountable, a lot will change. If you change the way the game is scored, you change the way the game is played. With no system of measurement then 'anything goes' and there will never be any meaningful accountability.' It's a good subject Peter...Folks on this thread talk of the subject. It seems it is Wayne's top topic and a very thoughtful one. So please draw us into your conversation. There are indexes on the subject, and I have been looking at them to see if any could be pasted together as a starting point for discussion. I have mused on it myself as well on the thread. Three weeks ago, I posted the following above but it garnered no takers and the topic quickly flipped to the heated topic of the day. ********** The Declaration of Independence Holds Keys to Life Purpose “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are ….. endowed by their Creator with …… Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These are the attributes determined by America’s founders to be worthy of individual acclamation. Life Liberty And the pursuit of happiness “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it” These then, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are the attributes worthy of casting off the yoke of governance if, in its current form, they cannot be achieved. “and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” So the founders of America deemed Government an affecter of safety and happiness. Not only was government an instrument of these two attributes, the form of government was deemed so important as to exercise their right and duty to “throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards” To ensure success in ultimately obtaining such safety and happiness. I am often perplexed at how America came to be the most powerful country on the planet, yet our nation’s quality of life, as given weight in our cherished Declaration, does not correlate with our dominant position in the world. America has achieved the both power and fortune, yet in that pursuit, our people don’t seem to have reached their uber-goal of happiness. A prescription for individual happiness is to achieve abundant connectedness, producing purpose and meaning, in the following areas of one’s life. * Connection to God: Spiritual development * Connection to self: Health – physical/mental/emotional/self esteem * Connection to others: Spousal intimacy/Family/Friends * Connection to your inner child: Recreation/Leisure /personal development * Connection to purpose: Giving/helping others, purposeful career * Connected to one’s future: Personal and community planning /Work progression/ Financial and physical security Balance is the key. Striving for any one attribute while allowing others to suffer is a gross imbalance that like a cancer blots out one’s long-term happiness. If this balance is true for the individual, it must be collectively true for the nation. Yet is this balance and connection pursued by our communities or our government and industry leaders? Is balance achievable by a polarized legislature whose agenda is set by the 1%? If what is measured is treasured, it is high time America falls away from emphasizing GDP to begin to measure our Declaration of Independence Index. By Clif Carothers

Clif Carothers has referred to the core idea of America ... Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. It is possible to describe the purpose of life as to live life and enjoy it ... and to leave the world a better place. The core of leaving the world a better place is family and raising children to be good citizens ... and then the whole idea of taking care of the planet. In order for metrics to be meaningful there must be a happiness or quality of life component, and there must be something that records in a systematic way the consumption of the resources of the planet and the damage to the environment. Oil companies are thought of as being very profitable ... but there is no accounting for the fact that the global inventory of unexploited oil goes down every year. The business only accounts for the money costs of getting at the oil ... but does no accounting for the fact that the planet has less oil when the profits are reported. If this was costed into the money profit performance of the company at the current cost of replacing this resource (at the prevailing cost of renewable energy) then an oil company would have a very different profit profile. Perhaps more important the competitiveness of renewable energy would become more interesting. Value accounting that complements the existing money profit accounting would change the conversation ... and might well increase the price of gas in order to maintain profit margins or it might not. It is likely that society would get serious about the control of waste and energy profligacy. Value accountancy (TrueValueMetrics) has a focus on an economic activity in a place and the value chains that emanate from the place. The same data get 'rolled up' into the implementing organization AND the community. Valuadd then gets accounted for in the organization and in the community. The quantification of valuadd is a challenge, but it is important and it can be done. The idea of 'standard values' simplifies this and makes value accounting more efficient. Another concept that makes value accounting efficient is the idea of 'state', 'progress' and 'performance' ... the same concepts that there are in money profit accounting, that is: balance sheet, change in the balance sheet and operating statement (profit and loss account). At the moment when an employee is fired and becomes unemployed, the business organization reports more profit. In money profit accounting, that is where the accounting ends. TrueValueMetrics value accountancy adds in the impact of 'no job' on the individual, the family and the community ... the value destruction associated with 'job loss' is a multiple of the money profit increase that gets reported by the organization. Society knows that job loss is a disaster for society, but it is not measured, not accounted for and not reported. Today I have used the WhiteHouse.gov petition system ... http://wh.gov/dHZ1 ... to petition the Obama Administration to establish more meaningful metrics for the measurement of progress and performance throughout the economy and society. It will get a formal response if there are 100,000 signatures. It will be 'indexed' when it gets to just 150 signatures. Metrics ... measurement ... data ... accounting ... reporting ... are at the core of management. It goes on in business. It should be going on in the community and in society.