QUOTE(billfmsd @ Sep 25 2009, 07:56 PM)

I must say, the critique video made some strong rebuttals. It probably would have been more effective without the name-calling. I see these two arguments as sound within their own philosophy. It depends on how you define quality of life. Lee Doren defines it as having more. Annie Leonard defines it as needing less. I come down somewhere in the middle. I don't mind having more if it truly makes my life easier. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't. If having more means other people have to have less, I'd rather have less.
I haven't seen either video but it sounds like a topic I would be interested in. There are several attempts underway to develope an alternative to the Gross National Product (GNP) Index as a measure of how well we are doing as a country. One effort is Legatum Prosperity Index. This is an attempt to express Quality of Life as a
ratio of Personal Happiness divided by the size of the Environmental Imprint required to maintain it. This puts the
US near the bottom of the distribution of 100 countries studied...