Topping a ten-day period of sustainability-inspired thinking pervading economic reporting in the gray-flannel-media, the old gray lady reports (PW req’d) that French President Nicolas Sarkozy initiated a shift in how the French government reports economic activity (story tip to three of favorite tweeters: @NurtureGirl, @kevindoylejones and @byrnegreen).

President Nicolas Sarkozy told the French national statistics agency Monday to take greater account of factors like quality of life and the environment when measuring the country’s economic health.

Mr. Sarkozy made the request after accepting a report from a panel of top economists he had charged with reviewing the adequacy of the current standard of fiscal well-being: gross domestic product.

The panel, chaired by two Nobel economists, Joseph E. Stiglitz of Columbia University and Amartya Sen of Harvard University, concluded that G.D.P. was insufficient and that measures of sustainability and human well-being should be included.

Sarkozy plans to present the findings to the G20 Summit in two weeks, according to the piece, and plans to encourage other countries to consider a different strategy.

GDP has been under fire in some progressive and academic circles for years, generally charged with under-reporting human health and quality of life issues, while focusing too much importance on macro-level financial and economic indicators.  GDP also does not take into account environmental factors, including greenhouse gas emissions, which are now widely recognized as a key factor in measuring human enterprise and progress.  Philosophically, the concept of gross domestic product is, itself, a metaphor for the problems we are facing as a global society — we have passed a tipping point; more is not universally better, and quality must be considered alongside quantity for any measure of human endeavor.  The Times piece continues,

For instance, “developing countries may be encouraged to allow a foreign mining company to develop a mine, even though the country receives low royalties, even though the environment may be degraded, and even though miners may be exposed to health hazards,” the report says, “because by doing so G.D.P. will be increased.”

The mistake many radical progressives make is throwing out the proverbial baby with the bathwater. It’s not that economic growth is evil, per se, but that it’s not the only important measure of  a country economic progress.

“There isn’t a single indicator that can encompass everything,” said Enrico Giovannini, the chairman of the Italian national statistics agency, Istat. “It’s not a question of replacing G.D.P. It’s a question of complementing it with other indicators that can provide other measures of well-being.”