Z65.8

In the middle of the 2008 financial crisis, then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy stated the crisis was in part caused by the international community’s fixation on unreliable metrics like GDP. A “cult of figures,” he said scornfully.

Since then, in Canada, according to the Canadian Index of Wellbeing’s 2016 report, “The wellbeing of Canadians took a significant step backwards” since the recession, “and has only begun to recover.” Index of Wellbeing.

Despite having the third largest economy in Europe, Britons report feeling far lonelier than other Europeans. The problem has grown to such a degree that Prime Minister Theresa May appointed a Minister of Loneliness earlier this year.

A Minister of Loneliness.

Kim Samuels describes this social phenomenon of loneliness, metaphorically, as "sitting at the bottom of a well." She writes, "Social isolation is both a cause and consequence of problems that transcend borders, from climate change and addiction to the refugee crisis — all of which place a massive strain on our economies.

Yet our current metrics are ill-equipped to register the effects of social isolation — so much so that both the British Minister of Loneliness and newly appointed Minister of Happiness for the UAE have identified the one of largest hurdles in their new positions to be a lack of data."

A Minister of Happiness. Lack of data.

She quotes Bobby Kennedy in a speech he made in Kansas when running for President. At the University of Kansas, he said that Gross National Product counts “air pollution and cigarette advertising” but “does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”

So, is the point here that an economy is not life? That what you do eight hours a day is not actually what you are? That improving the elements of a financial summary may not improve your well-being?

That maybe materialism is incomplete?

An old definition of a sociologist is "a man constantly amazed by the obvious."

And Z65.8? It is the ICD-10 medical billing code for "Loneliness."