The task of reaching a more sustainable kind of economic process is narrowly
related with a double problem: up to date most societies have pursued an
explicit strategy of economic growth, although its successes are now
disappearing and, at a closer look, its negative ecological and social side
effects appear to be even growing. The first part of this article contrasts
the ambiguity of the growth concept with a concept of social welfare, which
aims at a more qualitative kind of growth, considering the available natural
and social capital as well. It will become clear that even GDP as a
traditional and politically crucial indicator for the success or failure of a
country’s economic development necessarily gives ambiguous signals if one
looks at this parameter of the national accounts by the light of a sustainable
development. More recent calculations of the national welfare index for
Germany (NWI) result in some interesting discussion lines: the aggregated
progress of 19 variables shows an significant difference in its development:
between 2000 and 2007, the NWI tends to fall in comparison with GDP/GNI (gross
national income). This discrepancy is to be seen as evidence of the fact that
there might be an increasing economic growth even without any improvement in
welfare. Quite on the contrary, in the years 2008 – 2009 the NWI does not seem
to follow the drastic collapse of GDP/GNI at the same pace. This article aims
at providing an overview both of the social context in which NWI was created
as a complementary reporting system integrating GDP/GNI and of its
construction principles as well as of some results. From all this, some
conclusions will be drawn about how the index can be helpful in the
development of a more sustainable concept of welfare. For example, it will
become understandable that improvements in welfare can be achieved even
without economic growth. This process could go hand in hand with reflections
on economic transformation and cultural change. It is all about future
strategies allowing a reduction in the physical material and energy flux as
well as in the negative impacts on ecosystems and nature due to economic
activities, so that societies will profit from such change
