{"id":137531,"date":"2015-01-20T00:00:55","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T18:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=137531"},"modified":"2015-01-24T02:44:23","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T21:14:23","slug":"being-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/being-happy\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Happy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Charitha Ratwatte<\/span><\/a> \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Charitha<\/a>

Charitha Ratwatte<\/p><\/div>\n

An assessment challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do you assess whether a person is happy? Just after the euphoria of the triumph of the democratic process in our country, escaping from the brink of dictatorship and authoritarianism, would it be reasonable to say that most of the people are reasonably happy that we had a relatively peaceful election and a sensible transfer of power?<\/p>\n

Or is this simply our democratic right \u2013 to be expected as the right of a citizen living under a democratic constitution, to have the capacity to act democratically \u2013 and nothing to be deliriously happy about? Or can people be said to happy that the possibility of economic largesse of a new Government, expecting to go before the people again in a short while, will result in prices going down and incomes going up?<\/p>\n

For some economists, growth or GDP is an indicator of happiness. But few people consider a big income as an end in itself. It has been argued that income is not the only thing that matters. William Easterly of New York University, in 1999, used data from 1960 to 1990, to look at the correlation between GDP and 81 diverse other indicators of the quality of life. In only 32 cases did GDP outweigh the other indicators. In October 2014, a survey of 43 countries was published which showed that people in emerging markets almost equalled the level of satisfaction with their lives as expressed by people in rich countries.<\/p>\n

The dictionary tells us that being \u2018happy\u2019 is being cheerful with feelings of pleasure or satisfaction. \u2018Satisfaction\u2019 is, in turn, when you are pleased because you have achieved something or because something has happened as you wanted it to. Rulers have constantly tried to measure happiness as an indicator of the quality of life of the ruled.<\/p>\n

Economic growth is assumed to equate to wellbeing. However, it is well recognised to have serious limitations, for example it takes no account of environmental pollution and degradation, which negatively affects sustainability, also it excludes all unpaid services which exist in the economy, such as volunteering and domestic housework. Robert Kennedy, Attorney General of the USA and brother of President John. F. Kennedy, put it succinctly, when he said that GDP, \u2018measures everything \u2026 except that which makes life worthwhile\u2019!<\/p>\n

Economic performance measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of the value of goods and services produced in a country. It has been defined as the total of all economic activity in one country, regardless of who owns the productive assets. However, it has many flaws and does not even measure the value of goods and services precisely. Further, people\u2019s feelings of happiness or satisfaction or optimism also depend on things GDP does not capture.<\/p>\n

Difficult and challenging times<\/strong><\/p>\n

We live in difficult and challenging times. Global poverty and inequality stubbornly persists and the threat of the negative consequences of global climate change looms over all our heads.<\/p>\n

\"Happy\"<\/a>At a UN gathering in Brazil, the Rio +20 World Sustainability Conference, those that were concerned enough to attend, that is \u2013 the major players simply kept away! \u2013 the 238 point final agreement entitled \u2018The Future We Want\u2019 was arrived on the day appointed for the conference to end, a sure sign of an ineffective UN conference; there was no real controversy, where there are controversial \u2018real\u2019 issues raised, the meetings go on until the early hours of the morning, trying to hammer out a compromise. The EU\u2019s Climate Change Commissioner commented on the final communiqu\u00e9: \u201cTelling that nobody in that room adopting the text was happy. That\u2019s how weak it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

A growing number of ordinary people around the world are recognising the mutual interconnectedness of these issues and the need to think of a way to evolve a measure of development which would capture the real situation of the status of humanity as to their thinking of their present and future.<\/p>\n

How is \u2018sustainable progress\u2019 to be measured in the 21st century? The traditional indicators of economic activity simply don\u2019t tell us enough about ordinary peoples hopes, goals and aspirations. It is this realisation that prompted the United Nations to host a High Level meeting on Happiness and Well Being. For the same reason the few world leaders who actually attended Rio +20 were involved in negotiations on development indicators which \u2018would go beyond GDP\u2019.<\/p>\n

Happy Planet Index<\/strong><\/p>\n

The New Economics Foundation, responding to this need has created a Happy Planet Index (HPI). The HPI is considered to be one of the leading global measures of sustainable wellbeing. As a measure of human progress, it measures the extent to which countries deliver long, happy, sustainable lives for their citizens.<\/p>\n

The 2012 HPI report published on 14 June 2012, ranks 151 countries based on their efficiency \u2013 defined as the extent to which each nation produces long and happy lives for their citizens, per unit of environmental input. Clearly the results show that we are not living on a happy planet. No country has good performance on three critical indicators \u2013 life expectancy, experiential wellbeing and ecological footprint. Some countries certainly do well, but maybe not the ones you expected.<\/p>\n

None of the top 10 in the HPI are the world\u2019s rich countries. Of the top 40 in the HPI, only four have a GDP per capita of over $ 15,000. The highest ranking Western nation is Norway at 28. New Zealand is 29th. Costa Rica leads the HPI table, with its very high life expectancy, high experiential wellbeing and an ecological footprint one-third of USA\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The HPI results show that progress is not just about wealth. That it is possible to live happily in a sustainable way, without doing irretrievable damage to the environment and that this is measurable.<\/p>\n

Better Life index<\/strong><\/p>\n

The OECD, a mainly rich country think tank has attempted to address this issue of developing an accurate indicator for development has created the Better Life index. The index uses 24 variable indicators across 11 sectors, to create a measure of welfare for 34 of its members, plus Brazil and Russia. If the 11 sectors are grouped into two broader categories-America excels most in money and jobs, Switzerland in health and education,<\/p>\n

The index was launched in May 2011; it was the first attempt to bring together internationally comparable measures of wellbeing. The 11 sectors measured includes- housing, income, jobs, community life, education, environment, governance, work life balance, Each topic was considered using three indicators, for work life balance three indicators were considered, the number of employees working long hours, the percentage of working mothers, and the time people devoted to leisure and personal activities.<\/p>\n

A UNDP report, published some time ago \u2013 \u2018The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development\u2019 \u2013 says that employees in Sri Lanka are the most satisfied, up to 86% have declared to be so. An earlier survey has shown that Sri Lanka has topped an Asian list of people most satisfied with their lives. 93% of those surveyed in Sri Lanka said they were satisfied. One wonders about the sustainability?<\/p>\n

Human Development Index<\/strong><\/p>\n

The HDI, Human Development Index, developed by the UNDP under the guidance of the late Dr. Mahbub ul Haque was an alternative measure. Dr. Haque said: \u201cThe human dimension of development is not just another addition to the development dialogue. It is an entirely new perspective, a revolutionary way to recast our conventional approach to development.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1999 the Planning Commission of Bhutan organised a workshop in Thimpu to consider whether or not the concept of Gross National Happiness \u2013 GNH \u2013 as articulated by the King of Bhutan as a development target of his Kingdom, could be related to the HDI indicators of the UNDP.<\/p>\n

The workshop considered a number of issues: Could an index for GNH be constructed in the same way as the index for HDI? What are the main ingredients of happiness and what are the indicators for happiness? Were the four platforms of economic development, environmental preservation, cultural promotion and good governance through which Bhutan was pursuing GNH the appropriate ones?<\/p>\n

In 2007 a British academic Adrian White published a League Table of Happiness which put Denmark in number one position. White took data from diverse sources as UNESCO, WHO and the CIA and obtained data from 80,000 people in 178 countries. He concluded that factors such as healthcare and education were significant when it came to a person\u2019s happiness.
\nIn early 2009 a British think tank, the New Economic Foundation, produced a Happiness Index; referred to earlier, they used criteria such as life expectancy and the ecological footprint of the population as criteria.<\/p>\n

Just ask people<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lord Layard, an emeritus professor at the London School of Economics, one time the British Government\u2019s Happiness Czar and an academic, is of the view that happiness can be measured by simply asking people. Lord Layard also is of the view that relationships are a lot more important that researchers normally allow for, people who want to be happy have to pay a great deal more attention to relationships and be not so willing to sacrifice them for the sake of income or productivity.<\/p>\n

Lord Layard says, on this strategy to measure happiness, \u201cI think it\u2019s wonderful; it\u2019s something I and others have been advocating for some time. It\u2019s based on the idea that unless you measure the right things, you won\u2019t do the right things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The British Prime Minister David Cameron promised at the election he won to measure subjective levels of wellbeing when the government sets about collecting other data for the census and measuring the usual things such as income levels and fear of violent crime.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s National Statistician, Jill Matheson, said that \u201cthere is a growing international recognition that to measure national wellbeing and progress there is a need to develop a more comprehensive view, rather than focusing solely on gross domestic product\u201d.<\/p>\n

Science of happiness<\/strong><\/p>\n

France has also jumped on the bandwagon of this \u2018science of happiness\u2019 movement, instead of confining oneself to only francs and centimes.<\/p>\n

In 2008 President Sarkozy appointed a Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, chaired by Nobel prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz consisting of 25 prominent social scientists, five with Nobel prizes in Economics including Stiglitz and Amartya Sen. The Commission presented its report on 14 September 2009, calling for the world, in the words of Stiglitz to abandon its \u201cGDP fetishism\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Commission dealt with the criticisms of GDP as measure of wellbeing. GDP takes no account of depreciation of capital goods, although the value of production is based on market prices, not everything has a price, the value of these services, such as owner occupied housing and voluntary childcare by parents is imputed by assumption.<\/p>\n

Canada has also developed a national wellbeing index, the Canadian survey asks subjective questions like \u2018How much do you enjoy your life? Are you comfortable with your current level of debt?\u2019 and asks about Canadians\u2019 core values, living standards and their identification with minority or ethnic groups. The British survey was expected to follow this format.<\/p>\n

Richard Easterlin asked the question: \u2018Will raising the income of all raise the happiness of all?\u2019 Lord Layard in his book \u2018Happiness: Lessons from a New Science\u2019 says: \u201cThere is a paradox at the heart of our lives. Most people want more income and strive for it. Yet as Western societies have got richer, their people have become no happier.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Commission also examined the wellbeing of future generations. Our successors will inherit a stock of resources, machines, buildings and institutions, the quality of their lives will depend to a great extent on our behaviour and investments we make today, especially in their human capital, education and health and the environment. Economic activity can be described as sustainable if future generations can expect to be at least as well off as us.<\/p>\n

The report concludes that finding any one measure which catches up all this seems too ambitious and that it is wiser to look at a wide range of indicators that is a basket of figures broadening official statistics beyond GDP alone.<\/p>\n

Pursuit of happiness<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Brazil a Senate Committee has approved an amendment to the Constitution which would make the pursuit of happiness a fundamental right. A Brazilian NGO was pushing for this. This brings the Brazilian Constitution somewhat in line with the USA\u2019s Declaration of Independence which includes the phase \u201clife, liberty and the pursuit of happiness\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian NGO Movimento Mais Feliz (Happier Movement) say that the amendment was supposed to emphasise those other essential rights, such as access to adequate services in health and education, were essential to the achievement of happiness. Professor Cristiano Paixao of the Faculty of Law at the University of Brasilia described the amendment as \u2018a useless and worrying change to the constitution\u2019. \u2018Can you guarantee happiness by law?\u2019 is his question.<\/p>\n

The NGO\u2019s position is that it aims to promote happiness through five fronts: increasing popular awareness, mobilising social groups, stimulating participation in social projects, training \u2018multiplier\u2019 community activists and motivating citizens to contribute to its projects. It says: \u2018The state has an obligation to create conditions to provide education, health, security, etc., the idea is to force the state to assume the responsibility of meeting these needs so that citizens can seek happiness.\u2019<\/p>\n

A Gallup poll has found that Brazil was 12th happiest of 155 countries surveyed, one position happier than the USA. Four of the five happiest countries were in Scandinavia. Generally surveys have shown that when people have been asked to say how happy they were as compared to the past, the answers show that for the very poor, level of income really matters, when they self-assess their level of happiness. But similar surveys have also shown that an enhanced income does not contribute to happiness, among segments of the population who have something over and above than the basic necessities of life.<\/p>\n

The price of inequality<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, who chaired former President Sarkozy\u2019s Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and was also involved in the OECD Better Life Index, wrote a recent book entitled \u2018The Price of Inequality: How Today\u2019s Divided Society Endangers our Future\u2019 in response to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters.<\/p>\n

Stiglitz says that the Occupy Wall Street protesters\u2019 slogan of \u2018We are the 99%\u2019 echoes an article he wrote in 2011 in Vanity Fair entitled \u2018Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%\u2019 in May 2011. This inequality, Stieglitz argues, is the result of public policy being captured by elites who have feathered their own nests at the expense of the rest of the community.<\/p>\n

They have abused their power to distort the political debate on these issues, pushing through tax cuts and concessions to favour the rich and adjusting monetary policy to favour the banks and financial houses.<\/p>\n

The challenge is how to measure these inequalities accurately so that there could be effective policy responses. The Rio + 20 commitments to new environmentally-friendly development benchmarks as an alternative to GDP may be a way forward.<\/p>\n

Measuring capabilities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amartya Sen, an Economist at Harvard, argues that we should not try to assess happiness but try to measure capabilities. He defines a capability as something that people have reason to value. Like the opportunity to live a long and healthy life, the freedom to be a political activist, the right to be well-nourished, etc.<\/p>\n

Prof. Sen\u2019s argument is that capabilities are ends that economies should try to maximise; income on the other hand is one of the main means which could get a person there. Martha Nussbaum of the University of Chicago agrees with Sen and adds that people must have the freedom to select which capabilities they would choose to seek. Freedom of choice has an impact on wellbeing, she argues. If people are given sufficient opportunities to choose which options they would pursue, then their ultimate decision gets less critical.<\/p>\n

Measuring capability may be even more difficult than measuring GDP or happiness. However, there are certain substitute indicators. For example, countries with a high life expectancy in all probability offers its citizens basic services like good healthcare, an unpolluted environment, which support long life expectancy. Again where girls cannot attend school or cannot drive vehicles, there is a lack of opportunity for females. In the same way, is the capacity to conduct a free and fair election in the face of almost fascist challenges, a capability that leads to happiness, as in Sri Lanka\u2019s recent political history?<\/p>\n

UN\u2019s World Happiness Report<\/strong><\/p>\n

The United Nations, ever the optimist, has been publishing an annual World Happiness Report since 2012. On 10 December 2014, the UN also released its latest version of its \u2018Inclusive Wealth Index\u2019. This puts a monetary value on public goods such as education and health.<\/p>\n

Ultimately happiness can be argued as being satisfied with what you have and not craving for more. Being devoid of greed and jealousy is the way to be happy. Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha was no economist, but he taught some basic truths! He had the conclusive word on this when he preached that the way to happiness and satisfaction was to limit and control needs and eliminate greed and craving.<\/p>\n

The second of the Four Noble Truths \u2013 Samudaya \u2013 is that suffering is caused by craving. The surest way to ensure happiness and satisfaction is to minimise needs. This is also in one sense one of Amartya Sen\u2019s capabilities!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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