  A series of crises, culminating with COVID-19, shows that going Beyond GDP is
urgently necessary. Social and environmental degradation are consequences of
emphasizing GDP as a measure of progress. This degradation created the
conditions for the COVID-19 pandemic and limited the efficacy of
counter-measures. Additionally, rich countries did not fare the pandemic much
better than poor ones. COVID-19 thrived on inequalities and a lack of
cooperation. In this article we leverage on defensive growth models to explain
the complex relationships between these factors, and we put forward the idea of
neo-humanism, a cultural movement grounded on evidence from quality-of-life
studies. The movement proposes a new culture leading towards a socially and
environmentally sustainable future. Specifically, neo-humanism suggests that
prioritizing well-being by, for instance, promoting social relations, would
benefit the environment, enable collective action to address public issues,
which in turn positively affects productivity and health, among other
behavioral outcomes, and thereby instills a virtuous cycle. Arguably, such a
society would have been better endowed to cope with COVID-19, and possibly even
prevented the pandemic. Neo-humanism proposes a world in which the well-being
of people comes before the well-being of markets, in which promoting
cooperation and social relations represents the starting point for better
lives, and a peaceful and respectful coexistence with other species on Earth.
