Dear Colleagues
I have put a lot of effort into the development of a website to support the TrueValueMetircs initiative. The website is a lot better than some, but also has major limitations because of my own level of technical knowledge and inability to convert ideas into practical presentations.
One of the major concerns that is driving my work is the huge problem of data overload. When I want an answer to a simple question, I can easily get a million answers ... when I really want to choose between just two or three good alternatives.
I am also concerned that modern economists and financial analysts seem to spend a lot of time doing analysis about things that are unimportant, while really big questions do not get addressed. The dialog in almost every forum seems to have a preset 'agenda' and in the end the dialog leaves you at the end just about where you were at the beginning.
I am appalled at how little of recent history seems to be presented in current debate the way I remember it when it happened just a few years back. The rewriting of history may be politically convenient, but it does not help to get important problems solved.
In the end all of this makes me even more convinced that something like TrueValueMetrics is needed, together with a platform that enables TVM to be used by everyone everywhere.
TVM builds on the idea that there is technology, society, finance and metrics and together they deliver on quality of life. I see little utility in GDP growth as a useful measure of anything. In Somalia where people are starving, some GDP growth would be of huge importance, but in the USA where per capita GDP exceeds $40,000 a year there is an urgent need to consume less and enjoy life more.
None of the media conversations seems to understand how well is just as important as how big ... we have to start changing the dialog and the website truevaluemetrics.org is a step in this direction. This link goes to a collection of material that I have found to be useful ... in due course I want to see a very specific dialog about the community and the specific association between needs, resources, activities and progress in improving quality of life.
This is the first 'blogspot' post for several months. As time evolves more and more of the TVM work will be visible on multiple platforms.
Peter Burgess
