Introduction

Abstract

In a speech given by Robert Kennedy at the University of Kansas in 1968, whilst he was on the campaign trail, he reflected on the state of the nation:

Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product is now over $800 billion dollars a year, but that gross national product — if we judge the United States of America by that — that gross national product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and the ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks on our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts the napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities … Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.