GDP and trash

I was reading an article that I found interesting from the Economist, and it reminded me of a simple fact that must be considered when we define "development." The first picture is one of GDP, or gross domestic product, which is basically a measure of income. Intuition would tell us that as incomes rise, people live healthier, happier lives. And this is true to some degree.

The second picture is a measure of the trash that people create (or municipal solid waste) in kilograms per day.

 Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/06/daily-chart-3
Comparing the two pictures is obvious. Raising incomes does NOT solve all the problems, in fact it leads to a very glaring cost (called a negative externality in economics).

For me, this is a reminder that development is about more than people's income. It's (more importantly I would argue) about people, about relationships. With God, ourselves, others, and creation. More on this later!