Gross National Happiness

 Our nation is progressing by leaps and bounds. Our progress is measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Well, of-course it is a good indicator of the economy of the country but I believe it is not a complete system. Economists have long known that GDP is not a perfect system. What if there existed a system which can better judge a nation’s economical progress with better means than the GDP.

Well, such a method exists and is currently followed by Bhutan. It is called Gross National Happiness(GNH). The term was coined in 1972 by Bhutan's former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who had opened up Bhutan to the age of modernization, soon after the demise of his father, King Jigme Dorji Wangchuk. He used the phrase to signal his commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values. Of-course, Bhutan is the only country which uses this method but research is on into whether we can switch from our current GDP system to GNH so we as country can plan our economic wellbeing based solely on the citizen’s happiness rather huge profit margins.

 As we all know that a nation’s economic well-being depends largely on the happiness of the people. If people are satisfied with the salary they make, then probably it can be inferred that that the economy is doing well.  As economic development on the planet approaches or surpasses the limits of ecosystems to provide resources and absorb human effluents, calling into question the ability of the planet to continue to support civilization, many people have called for getting "Beyond GDP" (the title of a recent EU conference) in order to measure progress not as the mere increase in commercial transactions, nor as an increase in specifically economic well-being, but as an increase in general well-being as people themselves subjectively report it. GNH is a strong contributor to this movement to discard measurements of commercial transactions as a key indicator and to instead directly assess changes in the social and psychological well-being of populations.

GNH value largely depends upon:

1.     Economic Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of economic metrics such as consumer debt, average income to consumer price index ratio and income distribution

2.     Environmental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of environmental metrics such as pollution, noise and traffic

3.     Physical Wellness: Indicated via statistical measurement of physical health metrics such as severe illnesses

4.     Mental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of mental health metrics such as usage of antidepressants and rise or decline of psychotherapy patients

5.     Workplace Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of labor metrics such as jobless claims, job change, workplace complaints and lawsuits

6.     Social Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of social metrics such as discrimination, safety, divorce rates, complaints of domestic conflicts and family lawsuits, public lawsuits, crime rates

7.     Political Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of political metrics such as the quality of local democracy, individual freedom, and foreign conflicts.

Hopefully, we will witness this paradigm shift in the near future where the economy will be more suited to the social needs of the people.