To GDP or not to GDP?

The debate on the shortcomings of GDP as a holistic indicator has been going on for years. Some have taken this rather academic discussion to the level that we should ignore GDP as quality of life is more important than economic growth. I hardly think we should be debating whether people are happier with good quality employment or with less traffic.

However, I decided to delve deeper in the recent Gallup Global Emotions 2024 report. I then focused on the report results for “Stress” and “Worry” for Malta in comparison to other neighbouring countries around the Mediterranean Sea. The results are shown below for the percentage YES replies to “Stress” and “Worry”.

The end result is that notwithstanding a decade of unprecedented economic growth, the Maltese are among the most stressed and worried persons around the Mediterranean region. It is significant that the Maltese are almost as worried as Israel residents, which is a state that is almost always at war.

So what should be the way forward? Should we stop growing our economy? I doubt that would lead to lower levels of stress and worry for us. I believe that the above statistics clearly show that Malta is a country that is caving in under the weight of the present economic growth model.

An economic growth model reliant on labour-intensive sectors requiring thousands of foreign workers to join the labour market each year is unsustainable from various infrastructure perspectives. Additionally, it is likely to increase stress and concern among Maltese citizens regarding the future direction of Malta. For various years, policymakers harboured under the illusion that not rocking the boat will likely still deliver huge electoral support. As along as the economy is growing, electoral support will not change. Now they realise that this thinking has huge limitations as ultimately there is also a limit to how much people can live in a country whereby the balance of what is workable and acceptable in everyday life has clearly been tipped towards the wrong side.