Economists are familiar with the top two layers of the cake, in which money is the major ingredient.
But it rests on the public sector . . . The monetarizing of formerly unpaid caring work will continue to be the fastest growing service sector . . . The generally ignored and unac- counted basis of the entire productive system is, of course, Nature, the ecosystem, Gaia. The intrinsic value to devising new types of national wealth indicators is that they spark more discussion in the ongoing and necessary debate about which economic indicators are useful and what definitions of progress valid. Competition between species, groups, organizations and individuals, as well as ideas, keeps unhealthy overgrowth at bay.