CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING SCENARIO. A technical malfunction in a chemical plant causes an explbsion which releases vast amounts of toxic waste. A nearby river is contaminated and pollution levels soar, rendering sections of the river biologically dead. The government launches a massive clean-up program and resources are poured into the area. As a result economic activity is stimulated, and the national accounts record an increase in gross domestic product (GDP). 'Growth' has occurred. We are all better off. Or so the economic analysts would have us believe.

Consider a second scenario. A woman in the home works eight hours a day, seven days a week. She is required to perform the duties of companion, counsellor, financial manager, buying officer, teacher, nurse, chef, nutritionist, decorator, cleaner, supervisor, social secretary and recreation officer. There is no financial remuneration and no benefits accrue to the worker. Her senices do not pass through the marketplace. She is deemed 'unproductive'. The produce of her labour is unrecognised and is excluded from the national accounts. Eight hours a day, seven days a week and the housewife is rendered invisible. In this scenario, work is not work when (or because?) a woman does it. . .

In Counting for Nothing (Allen and Unwin, $24.95) Marilyn Waring, an economist and former parliamentarian in New Zealand, synthesises a strong feminist and environmental perspective in a critique of conventional economics. She systematically documents the contradictions inherent in the national accounting framework. A system of accounts which records an environmental disaster as increasing GDP is a questionable indicator of the wellbeing of society. The idea that an increase in GDP is automatically a good thing is an illusion.

Such a concept of economic growth fails, she argues, to discriminate between the costs and benefits of production and only includes commodities that can be bought and sold in the marketplace. The national acc~unts provide no way of determining net changes in social welfare. Yet GDP statistics are revered by economists and statisticians and politicians quote them as a measure of their contribution to society's progress.

In Counting for Nothing a picture evolves of the arbitrary definitions which form the basis of what constitutes the boundary of 'economic activity'. Warings major purpose is to demystify the 'objective' criterion on which the national accounts are based. Economists and statisticians have managed to absolve themselves of responsibility by hiding behind the disclaimer of scientific methodology. The system they implicitly or explicitly defend places avalue on death (for instance the US military machine) whilst failing to place a value on life (reproduction of the species).

Warings criticisms are significant and insightful but the real challenge lies in formulating a viable alternative. She suggests that goals and policies should be based on an explicitly articulated value system. Her new model for global economics consists of three segments: a non-monetary sector; a protected sector of production and work for the home market and public services; and a fettered sector which operates in the competitive international market.

Waring's conception allows for work to be assessed by volume and not just in terms of monetary values. Statistical measurements are downgraded and emphasis is placed on the model to address issues of housing, health, poverty, environmental quality, resource depletion, distribution, paid and unpaid work. This model reveals a gamut of questions which current economtc analysis is ill equipped and/or unwilling to address.

Waring assumes a high level of literacy and a degree of familiarity with the academic debates from which she draws. But she should be given credit for attempting to personalise the debate and provide accessible strategies to pursue Ghange. Waring's suggestion for filling out the next census has a mark of ingenuity that would instill a sense of worth in women working at home: housewives would answerthe census questions by classifying themselves as fulltime workers, employed by their families to perform multiple activities in 'slave labour'. Successfully implemented, this could prove to be a revolutionary means of undermining the national accounts.

Counting for Nothing is a provocative book and the reader is provoked. Travelling the world through Marilyn Waring's eyes and experiences, it is possible to share in her sense of outrage and injustice. What becomes clear is that the 'experts' need to be challenged; they need to be made accountable. Waring provides an invaluable tool to begin this process.

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