The measure of Happyness
Antipodean cousins meet on the podium.
The impasse of traditional economics to measure well-being and happiness is an ongoing source of debate. This why beyond the anecdotal fun facts, the publication of the latest Quality Of Life Index by International Living is a worthwhile initiative.
2010 vintage sees France get Gold, while Silver goes to Australia.
Why does this initiative matter?
Since Adam Smith the field has been looking for legitimacy that it hoped to find in some form of scientific rigor, which eventually led to an unfortunate split and confusion between two approaches:
- The neoclassical, ‘scientific’ and mathematical approach on the one hand
- And the ‘art’ of broader social philosophy on the other.
So we ended up with silos. For instance:
- Max Weber, the 19th century critic of capitalism, is generally regarded as an economic historian;
- John Kenneth Galbraith is often thought of as a sociologist;
- Kenneth Boulding is referred to as a philosopher;
- Karl Marx, by contrast, refused to be called an economist and saw himself as a social critic;
- Noam Chomsky is viewed as a philosopher, when not confined to the role of radical political activist by his critics;
- etc.
The trouble is that anyone who tries to understand the social condition of humankind has to deal with multiple dimensions. The notion of undifferentiated growth has must become antiquated. It misses out a key component of our lives: Contentment. Which by the way makes total sense if we remember that Adam Smith was a *moral* Philosopher
Even the most hard-nosed high priests of Wall Street should take another look at the US Declaration of Independence, which lists the “pursuit of happiness” as an “inalienable right” of mankind. There is no mention of the pursuit of GDP.
This is why beyond serious academic research, various attempts to factor quality of live and well-being into the measure of progress and development are worth looking at.
- The concept of gross national happiness (GNH) was coined in 1972 by Bhutan’s former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in an attempt to define quality of life in more holistic and psychological terms than gross national product.
- Even French President Sarkozy went on record to suggest that his country would start measuring a happiness index. [the political nature of such an announcement is obvious but not the point of this post] (Source: the Independent)
So this year’s Quality Of Life Index 2010 brings French and Australian antipodean cousins on the podium: two countries very dear to our hearts here at the other school of economics. Switzerland gets the bronze. Germany and New Zealand follow.
Although not academic-bullet-proof, subject to obvious personal bias (editors admit a western bias), and quite frankly mostly dedicated to executives and retired people, this yearly survey is based on several publicised indexes regarding cost of living, economy, culture, environment, freedom, health, safety, etc. Sources include government websites, the WHO, the UNESCO Statistical Yearbook, The Economist, etc. [*]
- France ranks highly in almost all categories. The Huffington Post summarised it by ”Pros: World’s best health care system, good food. / Cons: Tiresome bureaucracy, high taxes”.
- Australia deserves its Lucky Country nickname thanks to a great environment and a prosperous economy.
The Huffington Post one-liner verdict: “Pros: Active and healthy lifestyle / Cons: Expensive housing” (your correspondent can’t disagree with that…)
In any case this initiative is a timely and gentle reminder to factor a bit of T.L.C. in our lives.
Happy Twenty-10 Well-Being everybody!
{ NKN & leLaissezFaire }
[*]: This index seems to leave out of the picture a few pressing issues happening on the fringe of mainstream society. eg: without wanting to over-simplify things, but to cut it short, watch and compare those 2 movies: Samson & Delilah (trailer) and La Haine (trailer)
Sources & references:
Quality Of Life Index 2010:
http://www.internationalliving.com/Internal-Components/Further-Resources/quality-of-life-2010
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/07/2010-quality-of-life-inde_n_413765.html
Measuring happyness:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-lichfield/john-lichfield-sarkozys-happiness-index-is-worth-taking-seriously-1790323.html
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