PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday asked world leaders to join a “revolution” in the measurement of economic progress by dropping their obsession with gross domestic product to account for factors such as health care availability and leisure time.
In a speech on the first anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Sarkozy said the financial crisis has shown the need for a better way of calculating a country’s economic health.
His own country — known for its leisurely meals, long vacations and labor protections — could outshine more profit-focused economies if nations act on new recommendations in a report headed by two Nobel economists commissioned 18 months ago but short on details.
“A great revolution is waiting for us,” Sarkozy said. “For years, people said that finance was a formidable creator of wealth, only to discover one day that it accumulated so many risks that the world almost plunged into chaos.
“The crisis doesn’t only make us free to imagine other models, another future, another world. It obliges us to do so.” The Associated Press
