Q: Should happiness be measured by economists? Can it?
A: Yes. Yes.
In response to the Globe & Mail's July 4th editorial ‘Comparing incomparables – forget the elusive ‘gross domestic happiness – economists should stick to facts and figures’, I strongly disagree. Fundamentally, we need to find better ways of measuring individual and societal well-being (NOTE: not to be confused with momentary hedonistic pleasure). Economists originally struck out to measure and maximize well-being in society. Gross domestic product (GDP) became a proxy for measuring this. It worked for a while as a world growing richer (at least in the West) lifted many beyond the chronic illness, premature death and subsistence living that plagued the 19th and early 20th centuries. Unfortunately, GDP has not served us well for the last 50 years with self-reported measures of happiness declining slightly and rates of suicide, depression, stress, anxiety, all increasing. If our best indicator of well-being is broken, should we not endeavour to find other(s) as the French government is doing?
Can we actually measure happiness or well-being? Many countries, communities and individuals are already trying to do this. There have been great strides in recent years to find alternative indicators – Genuine Progress Indicators (GPI), CIEL’s Community Vitality Initiative (CVI) for small Canadian communities, Happy Planet Index (HPI) in the UK, the Atkinson Foundation’s Canadian Index of Well-Being, Gross National Happiness (GNH) in Bhutan and the New Economics Foundation’s National Accounts of Well-being where you can compare your relative happiness to those like you in many European countries.
Like the stockmarkets, however, be prepared for a rollercoaster ride.
Mike Stolte - The Happy Economist
http://happy-economist.blogspot.com/
Executive Director, Centre for Innovative & Entrepreneurial Leadership (CIEL – www.theCIEL.com), co-developer of CVI
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