Here’s something I read on social media recently:
The CEO of Euro Exim Bank Ltd. got economists thinking when he said:
“A cyclist is a disaster for the country’s economy: he doesn’t buy cars and he doesn’t borrow money from the bank to buy.
He doesn’t pay insurance policies. He doesn’t buy fuel, pay for maintenance and necessary repairs. And he does not use paid parking. Does not cause serious accidents. Does not require multi-lane roads. It does not make you fat.
Healthy people are also not necessary or useful to the economy. They do not buy medicine. They do not go to hospitals or doctors. It adds nothing to the country’s GDP (gross domestic product).
On the contrary, each new McDonald’s restaurant creates at least 30 jobs: 10 cardiologists, 10 dentists, 10 nutrition experts and, obviously, the jobs for the people who work in the restaurant.”
Choose carefully: the bicycle or McDonald’s? It’s worth considering.
PS: Walking is even worse. Pedestrians don’t even buy bikes.
Alternative perspectives like this one help us to think differently. They help us to see different knock on effects of choices we make. When we choose to collect data digitally or undergo some form of digital transformation, what else are we signing up for? What are the knock on effects? And what are the other choices available to us?
And there are always other options. What choices are you making?
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