Measuring the Happiness of Nations – Is it Possible?

On Monday April 2, the United Nations implemented Resolution 65/309. The resolution, adopted at the impetus of the Kingdom of Bhutan, calls for day long meetings at the next UN General Assembly to discuss determining the Gross National Happiness (GNH) of a country as a more accurate measure of the country’s success than Gross National Product.

Measuring factors such as divorce rates, level of crime, infant mortality rate, and equality, the GNH of a country can be determined with measurable and comparable accuracy just as GDP and GNP. The Kingdom of Bhutan’s current King has perpetuated the dream started by his grandfather to recognize that there is more to a country’s success than its ability to manufacture and sell products.

The Kingdom of Bhutan conducted extensive research to discover an applicable method of measuring happiness on a national scale. One of the most interesting discoveries of the research revealed that physical health contributed to overall happiness, so a country that prioritizes the health of its citizens is likely to score higher. Additionally, countries that prioritize productivity produces citizens who tend to focus on the same goal, even at the detriment of their own health and happiness.

The Kingdom of Bhutan is calling on the UN to help shift the world away from a “suicidal path.” Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley, addressing the UN, explained, “We need to rethink our entire growth-based economy so that we can thrive more effectively on our own resources in harmony with nature. We do not need to accept as inevitable a world of impending climate chaos and financial collapse.”

Thinley decried the emphasis that is currently placed on other economic measures, saying, “Economic growth is mistakenly seen as synonymous with wellbeing. The faster we cut down forests and haul in fish stocks to extinction, the more GDP grows. Even crime, war, sickness, and natural disasters make GDP grow, simply because these ills cause money to be spent.”

These are not just the ramblings of a country with GNP envy. There is growing trend by leading economists to focus their research on happiness, recognizing that GNP does not reflect the well being of its citizens. Two Nobel laureates, Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz, believe the Kingdom of Bhutan, whose per capita income is $670 while the country is the sixth happiest in the world.

Monday’s UN meeting, entitled “Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm” brings the GNH into the mainstream. The approach countries are being called on to take makes practical sense: reduce suffering, focus on education, empower local communities, protect the ecology, and invest in mental health. Some of the suggestions, however, fly in the face of the purely commercial system embraced in countries like the U.S., who may never be willing to “[control] the media in a way that doesn’t limit freedom but restrains the creation of artificial cravings.”