In the 1970s, the King of Bhutan (a small nation just to the right of Nepal, on the south side of the Himalayas) proposed an index that went beyond simple Gross Domestic Product (or wealth) as a measure of his nation’s success. The index became known as the Gross National Happiness Index.
Technically defined as “multidimensional development approach seeking to achieve a harmonious balance between material well-being and the spiritual, emotional and cultural needs of society”, GNH promotes “a flourishing human society living in harmony with nature”.
There are four pillars of the GNHI:
Good Governance
Sustainable Socioeconomic Development
Promotion and Preservation of Culture
Environmental Conservation
And nine inter-related ‘domains’ of Gross National Happiness that form the basis of the metrics used to gauge its status.
As they say on the GNH website:
“The happiness of human beings is not seen as separate from the wellbeing of other life forms, and ecological diversity and resilience are included in the measure of GNH. The balance between material and non-material development, and the multi-dimensional and interdependent nature of GNH are key features that distinguish GNH from GDP as a measure of a country’s progress.”
Bhutan’s poverty levels plummeted from 36% to around 12% between 2007 and 2017. It’s hard to tell whether the GNH is the precise cause of this, but it certainly didn’t seem to hurt.
Bhutan has led the world in the idea that policies organized around promoting human wellbeing are more valuable than simple economic benchmarks of development. However, the UN has also been looking at trends in ‘world happiness’, and ways to measure it, for 10 years now.
In their 2022 ‘World Happiness Report’, the UN says, among many positive conclusions especially in Asia: “There has, on average, been a long-term moderate upward trend in stress, worry, and sadness in most countries and a slight long-term decline in the enjoyment of life.” This is certainly true of North America, in their statistics.
I’m not surprised at this trend.
In some ways, these national indices of happiness seem rather cheesy, and not very serious, but I think we should pay more attention to them. They emphasize two things, in particular, which I think are essential to create a vibrant next chapter for all of us:
The interconnectedness (of all things). E.g. we can’t sustain economic-prosperity if our environment isn’t healthy.
A baseline of trustworthy governance and institutions. Instability or mistrust in key aspects of governance and institutions leads to decay in other measures.
I believe we need to rekindle our attention to these two broad principles in America. I want us to have more ‘enjoyment of life’ in our next chapter, but to do that, we need to take care of each other, our institutions, and our beautiful and essential environment.
It doesn’t seem all that hard when you boil it down to those elements, but of course, we get in our own way all the time. The key here though is what we choose to measure.
If what we measure is GDP only, then being an unhealthy nation where individuals and insurance companies have to spend a lot on health care, becomes an economic positive. This is utterly bizarre to me.
If we instead, valued a measure of health as a key indicator of national development and success, then our policies would be different, I believe.
Instead of understanding productivity based on how many hours a year we work (meaning the fewer vacation days the better for American business), what if we followed Bhutan’s lead and looked at how we use time beneficially (for work and for helping others, care-taking, participating, and for our own wellbeing)?
Would we be more productive at work? Would we have fewer elder people who lack basic care? Would we have less gun violence among teens? Would we live longer?
Would we be happier?
I have no idea, but I think initiating a happiness index might make us rethink a few things.
100% yes! Infinite growth isn't possible within our planetary boundaries. So, growth is clearly the wrong metric. I think the challenge comes in grappling what it will take for WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) countries to change. I'd be curious to learn how Bhutan got there. I believe they're one of the few countries who are on target for carbon reductions and they charge a daily stipend to tourist to cover environmental impacts of their visit. They're clearly a leader in citizen wellbeing. I love to see it!
The lack of comments or reactions here makes me wonder if indeed it’s easy to skim the title of this piece, decide it’s probably something silly, and move on. But I actually think this is dead on accurate in its entirety.
If a citizenry’s overall well-being can be measured - as it seems this Index makes a reasonable attempt to do - then that information is naturally going to be a better (more true) indication of the overall prosperity of a nation, or a neighborhood.
Though we are often taught that “happiness is a state of mind”, it is also a state of our ability to feel good in our bodies, to be able to love on our grandchildren, to breathe clean air, to settle our eyes on beautiful landscapes, to educate ourselves in anything we’re interested in pursuing, to contribute in some meaningful way, and to live in harmony with our neighbors. (And of course so much more.)
All of that is wrapped up in our economic health too. Yes. But one does not - perhaps cannot? - live without the other.