KONTROWERSJE WOKÓŁ POMIARU DOBROBYTU SPOŁECZNEGO

Abstract

Measurements of social welfare reflect the system o f the values that prevail in the societies that use them. Gross national product as a measurement o f the economic development and social welfare may be considered as an extremely important feature of the second half of the 20th century. On the one hand it provides the knowledge o f the state of economy and the level o f satisfaction o f the needs of a contemporary man, or it may be viewed, on the other hand, as a manifestation of the last decades’ philosophy predominantly present among the inhabitants of Europe, North America and Australia. Apart from that measurement, however, which from the orthodox economy perspective is the most important, the achievements and failures of the man may be also measured and assessed by such measurements as the life span, leisure time and related to it opportunities of self-realisation, the degree of social inequalities, or level of exploitation of natural resources and environmental degradation. A review o f different approaches to the measurement o f social welfare leads to the conclusion that creation of a synthetic performance probe, or measure, free from objections as to its partiality or discretion, is very difficult, i f not impossible. This is because of the impossibility to take a completely objective view of the values that are fundamental in the process of satisfying the needs of a man. Comparing welfare in time and space and analysing the effects of an economic growth it should be remembered that the described reality depends heavily on the choice of measurements used to evaluate it. Thus, the research economist’s responsibility as well as that of a teacher calls for accounting for a number of different measurements of welfare and social development.