FILM: WHO IS COUNTING

MARILYN WARING

Marilyn Waring is the foremost spokesperson for global feminist economics, and her ideas offer new avenues of approach for political action. With persistence and wit she has succeeded in drawing attention to the fact that GDP has no negative side to its accounts--such as damage to the environment--and completely ignores the unpaid work of women. "Why is the market economy all that counts?" Ms. Waring asks.

In 1975, when she was just 22 years old, she was elected to the New Zealand parliament. She was re-elected three times, and eventually brought down the government on the issue of making New Zealand a nuclear free zone.

When she was chairperson of the Public Expenditures Committee, she perfected what she calls the "art of the dumb question." Ever since she has challenged the myths of economics, its elitist stance, and our tacit compliance with political agendas that masquerade as objective economic policy.

The film has inspired many people – notably the Who's Counting Project – to work on human-scale economic alternatives, local currency exchanges, and more humane ways of measuring the quality of life.

WARINGS’ GLOBAL FEMINIST ECONOMICS è CHALLENGE TO THE GENDERBLINDNESS OF THE POLITICAL ECONOMY, WHICH IS HIGHLIGHTED BT THE NARROW ECOMONICISM OF WHITE MALESTEAM SCHOLARSHIP è RESIST/CHALLENGE/ GENDER BLINDNESS & NARROW ECONOMIC THINKING è [E.G. THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS, 2008?]

WARINGS’ THESIS: IN MODERN WORLD, ALL WORK AND HUMAN ACTIVITY IS VALUED IN RELATION TO ITS CASH GENERATING CAPACITY. IN THIS ECONOMIC MATRIX THERE IS NO VALUE OTHER THAN MONEY REGARDLESS OF HOW THAT MONEY IS MADE!

TOPIC SEQUENCE

1. WOMEN'S WORK AND THE GDP

{BECAUSE IT IS NOT EXCHANGED FOR DOLLARS, WOMEN'S WORK IS NOT COUNTED --- AND NOT CONSIDERED PRODUCTIVE è NOT INCLUDED IN GDP, THEREFORE DON'T GET A SENSE OF THE OVERALL WEALTH WOMEN'S WORK IS CREATING è “GENDER DISTORTIONS” è E.G., IN END WHEN, WOMEN APPLY FOR PENSIONS THEY ARE SEEN AS A BURDEN (INSULT TO INJURY)}

2. TIME CHARTS

{ALTERNATIVES [FOR IMPUTING VALUE THAT THAT WHICH IS VALUABLE] èTIME CHARTS OF PRODUCTIVITY --- WHEN THE SUN WAS HERE, WHAT WERE YOU DOING? è “TIME USE SURVEYS”}

3. ELEMENTS OF VALUE AND EXCHANGE

{ECONOMIST COUNT DISASTERS LIKE EXXON VALDEZ BECAUSE IT CREATES WORK AND VALUE ---}

4. PRODUCTIVITY

{HOW CAN PRODUCTIVITY BE RECALIBRATED? TIME USE SURVEYS? HOW DO WE MAKE WOMEN COUNT?}