#46,5

Today I have had an article writing day, with some 900 words added to the first of my wasted growth articles, and the final table of the article, a comparison of wasteful growth in the Nordic countries and the USA, finished. Total number of article writing days since New Year is up to 46,5.

#45,5

Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my wasted growth articles, with some reading done and some 400 words added to the articles, primarily the first one, for which I designed and compiled part of the comparative table on wasteful growth in the USA and the Nordic countries. Number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 45,5.

$41,5

Today I have had an article writing day devoted to proof-reading my Norwegian language article on CCS and climate justice ("Karbonfangst i lys av generasjonsrettferdighet"), and continuing my work on my wasted growth articles, primarily the first one, with work done on comparing wasted and wasteful growth in the Nordic countries with the performance of the USA. Some 150 words were added to the latter article manuscript. Total number of writing days this Spring is up to 41,5.

#40,5

Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my wasted growth articles, with some 700 words written on the first of them, and my conception of "wasteful growth" clarified.

Total number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 40,5.

#39,5

Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my wasted growth articles, primarily the first one, with some 600 words written, data for a table updated, and one table made. Total number of writing days this Spring is up to 39,5.

#6

Today I have had the autumn´s 6th article writing day, with some 300 words written on my article "Wasted growth". Crucially, this included researching and composing a table with data on wasted growth in the period 1990-2018. The work included preparing a conference presentation for tomorrow based on my current article draft.

Abstract for ISQOLS 2020: Wasted and wasteful growth in the USA

Yesterday I finished and submitted the abstract below for the 18th Annual Conference of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS 2020), to be held in Rotterdam in August.

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Wasted and wasteful growth in the USA

If the purpose of economic growth is to improve human welfare, then assessments should be made as to whether or not growth in fact contributes to improved welfare. By investigating Gross Domestic Product (GDP)/Gross National Income (GNI), Human Development Index (HDI) and inequality data, this article evaluates to what extent economic growth in the United States of America (USA) has benefited its population since 1990, the year in which HDI was launched. Comparisons are made with the Nordic countries. These are about as rich as the USA, but known for an alternative model of development, the Nordic welfare model, which is known for being focused on equality and equal opportunities. A notion of wasted growth, defined as real GDP/GNI per capita growth not accompanied by improved non-income Human Development, is introduced. Furthermore, the phenomenon of wasteful growth, understood as GDP/GNI per capita growth that only results in marginal improvements in non-income Human development, is investigated. The investigation is performed by looking into the components of HDI, namely average income, life expectancy and number of school years, and by comparing nonincome HDI values with GDP/GNI per capita growth rates. I further calculate nonincome IHDI values, i.e. inequality-adjusted nonincome Human Development values, for the period covered, to look into what difference inequality makes in evaluations of wasted and wasteful growth. The rather mediocre HDI performance of the USA in recent years begs the question: Is US growth wasted on the rich?