Reference #388: Thinking in Systems

Systems often produce exactly — and only — what you ask them to produce. Its balancing loops work towards the goal or purpose of the system. When a system is designed towards the wrong goal, outcomes are often achieved that don't improve the welfare of the system.

A common way in which the wrong goal is defined is by confusing effort with result. For example, if the desired state is good education, often the goal is measured by the amount of money spent per student. This is not necessarily correlated with good education.

Perhaps the worst mistake of this kind is the measurement of gross national product (GNP). It measures the goods and services produced by the economy — not any other measure of human welfare such as happiness, education, or equality. It measures, and so optimises for, throughout (flows) rather than stocks.

Meadows. Thinking in Systems, 2008. (138-139)

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