"Human well-being cannot be measured solely by wealth"
Paraphrasing the brilliant Amartya Sen in his behind-the-scenes comments on PBS's "Good Fortune" documentary:
On "Development"
Development is quite simple; it aims to remove the deprivations that plague human life; we need to look at the freedoms that people have in control over their lives to do the things that they wish to do; it is this extension of human freedom that is the central issue of development.
On "The Solution"
We can do an enormous amount to make the lives of each other better; we live in a very interdependent world, and some of us are more fortunate to have more control over our lives compared with others that don't; we have to emphasize the development of human capabilities; not that you bestow development on people, but that you actually make people more enabled. Once one acquires knowledge on how to deal with a deprivation, then they are in a position to help others. This is a unique approach. The way to get things right is to put them under public scrutiny. I am a great believer in public reasoning; this is the most important freedom that human beings have in terms of consequences. Support, sympathy, and communication and more cooperative action are essential to making eachother's lives better.
