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One nation's happiness is another's misery
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by Heritage | June 1, 2008 at 12:10 am
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Australia has a super abundance of happiness, an emotional state that's hard to measure and impossible to weigh up.
Just about everything that contributes to the high standard of living in the developed world - cars, air-conditioners, hot showers, electricity-burning gizmos - has the potential to bring misery to people around the world.
In a report to be released tomorrow, Professor Yew-Kwang Ng - the 2007 Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia - has calculated that the average Australian inflicts 9.5 years of misery on the citizens of other countries and on future generations.
That misery comes in the form of storms, floods and other disasters caused by the climate change gasses we pump out.
Professor Ng wants to take those effects into account and downgrade Australia's success and happiness rating. The 9.5 years of misery we inflict on other people would be subtracted from the 18.4 years of "perfect happiness" the happiness surveys assume the average Australian would enjoy.
If you'd like to get an idea of how much misery your nation causes visit the Happy Planet Index:
The Happy Planet Index is an innovative new measure that shows the ecological efficiency with which human well-being is delivered.
It is the first ever index to combine environmental impact with human well-being to measure the environmental efficiency with which country by country, people live long and happy lives.
By addressing the relative success or failure of countries in supporting good lives for their citizens, whilst respecting the environmental resource limits upon which our lives depend, the HPI has much to teach us. Analysing its results could help us to move towards a world where we can all live good lives without costing the earth.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 00:59 on June 1st, 2008
Heritage, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 04:28 on June 1st, 2008
What an interesting web site... And I like their idea of substituting something other than the GDP as the measure of well being. It is odd, because the GDP sees things like divorce or prison building as positives because they drive economic activity. But both are a measure of societal unhappiness and thus help measure how things don't work.
at 05:10 on June 1st, 2008
Thanks for your comment Mikasi. And yes, alternate ways of viewing "development", other than through a purely economic prism, are sorely needed. Money isn't everything, right?
The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan (the world's newest democracy) has used an index called Gross National Happiness for many years.
Gross National Happiness (GNH) is an attempt to define quality of life in more holistic and psychological terms than Gross National Product.
The term was coined by Bhutan's King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972 in response to criticism that his economy was growing poorly. It signaled his commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values. Like many moral goals, it is somewhat easier to state than to define. Nonetheless, it serves as a unifying vision for the Five Year planning process and all the derived planning documents that guide the economic and development plans of the country.
While conventional development models stress economic growth as the ultimate objective, the concept of GNH claims to be based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_national_happiness
at 06:13 on June 1st, 2008
Interesting site and a good story, Heritage. Thanks for posting!