Saturday, August 29, 2015

On Gauging the Pursuit of Happiness

If the smile on this woman’s face at the Kyichu Buddhist 
Temple in Bhutan is any gauge, the kingdom may have 
had it right that a country’s well-being is best measured by 
Gross National Happiness and not more rigid economic i
ndicators. Photo: Tim Graham/Getty Images
Measures of well-being pick up where gross domestic product leaves off
Please don’t groan when I say this. I’m only repeating what a bunch of subversive economists influenced by a small Buddhist country have persuaded governments all over the world is true: Money isn’t everything.
Norway is High on Both the Wealthiest and Happiest lists
Happiness, they say, is equally important, and it should be measured along with traditional metrics, such as per-capita income and gross domestic product, to gauge an economy’s progress and guide policy.
Mind you, these economists don’t dispute the value of money. But they say if the goal is to assess overall well-being, it’s an inadequate proxy.
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“GDP is not even a very good measure of economic well-being,” said John Helliwell, co-author of the World Happiness Report and a professor of economics at the University of British Columbia. “It fails to account for pollution, expenditures on police and prisons, military expenditures and household services. Even if you had a very good measure of the economy, it still wouldn’t capture all of life.”
The most recent edition of the World Happiness Report ranks 158 countries based on how people answer questions about the quality of their lives. Six factors account for 75% of the differences between the countries, the researchers say. They are GDP, life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom and corruption.
Read the rest of the story HERE.

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