Do we need GDP and growth to govern better ?

John Maynard Keynes wrote ‘the difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.’ This is the heart of the problem : GDP and growth have become such obvious indicators that it is very difficult, regardless or whether one is an expert economist, a leader or a simple citizen, to escape the hold they have on our lives and the influence they have on our thinking. Jean Gadrey, a ‘growth objector’ and free-thinking economist, invites us to re-evaluate the situation. He agrees that there are other ways of considering the world rather than using the false assurances created by finance, and that we should be wary : if we hesitate, we run the risk of being affected by inevitable changes which we would rather avoid.