^CELEBRATING A DECADE
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The economics of happiness
r Education ♦ Dialogue ♦ Independence
BY ADAM FORREST
___ FORREST
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STREET NEWS SERVICE
e all like the idea of progress, and
the instinct is coiled no more
tightly than in the troubled world of
work and money. The deeper this recession,
the stronger the urge to spring back into
action; to turn all those falling arrows, lines
and numbers upward; to spread our wings
and fly again. The narrative of economic
expansion demands normal service be
resumed as quickly as possible.
Yet an increasing number of economists
are daring to wonder if we’ve got growth all
wrong. Researchers agree that people in
Britain and the U.S. are no happier than
they were at the beginning of the post-war
recovery of the 1950s, despite the longest,
largest boom in the history of wealth
creation.
Across the western world, depression and
mental health problems are on the rise,
inequality is becoming more pronounced,
and a generation of young adults find
themselves the first in a long time facing
fewer opportunities and less prosperity than
their parents.
“Growth simply doesn’t bring increases in
happiness for us,” says Richard Wilkinson,
co-author of “The Spirit Level,” a recent
study comparing health and happiness
recently appointed a commission to come
around the globe. “In developing countries
pregnancy can be linked to the widening gap
up with a better overall indicator than GDP,
it can still bring advances, but it’s very clear
between rich and poor. “A whole host of bad
that developed countries have got to the end led by two Nobel laureates, Amartya Sen at
things correlate with inequality, and all the
Harvard and Joseph Stiglitz at Columbia.
trends carry on getting worse in more
of what economic growth can do for them.”
“GDP is not a good measure,” says Stiglitz,
unequal societies.”
To understand our damaging obsession
noting that politicians
Britain and the
with growth over well-being, we need to
do not have enough
U.S. are at the wrong
confront the high priest of economic
"There are powerful
of an incentive to
end of the equality
performance: GDP. The concept of gross
spectrum, and too
increase the well
interests who don't want
domestic product began in Roosevelt’s
often remain the
being,of the citizenry.
to change the world-view,
America as a method of measuring the—
models for progress
“If you improve the
success of policies to boost production and
especially when there's so
when other countries
quality of life, but it
consumption during the Great Depression.
provide more
much pressure right now
doesn’t show up in
GDP assumes that by increasing the
enlightened policies.
more material
to get things hack to
goods and services in circulation, general
“You can get greater
consumption, it
normal."
equality in different
welfare will automatically follow, but output
doesn’t show up in
— PETER VICTOR
ways,” Wilkinson
has ceased to reflect the quality of our lives.
AUTHOR, "MANAGING WITHOUT
GDP, and you’ll be
GROWTH"
says. “Sweden does it
In western economies in which wages have
criticized.”
through taxes and
stagnated, pensions have shrunk or
In other words,
redistribution,
disappeared and income disparity has
our society is geared
whereas Japan insists upon much smaller
increased, GDP is no longer of any great use toward pleasing a false god. Or as Nic
income differences before you get to that
in measuring progress in the largest sense.
Marks, of the New Economics Foundation
stage, so you don’t actually need to spend
There already have been numerous
puts it: “If you have the wrong map, you are
huge amounts on welfare.
attempts to measure well-being alongside
unlikely to reach your destination.”
“Japanese directors would take pay cuts
the wealth of nations (the tiny mountain
So what would a more detailed, more
to prevent people losing their jobs further
kingdom of Bhutan famously introduced
meaningful map look like? According to
down. It’s a big difference from our culture
Gross National Happiness in the 1970s), by
Wilkinson, greater equality should be the
where’s there’s less idea of shared wealth.
looking at life expectancy, inequality, crime
primary focus in ensuring a happier,
But people are getting angry about the huge
rates or environmental factors. Efforts to
healthier world. His work suggests
push some of these indexes higher up the
everything from violent crime rates to rising wealth of a relatively few, and they’re right
to be.”
agenda are beginning to gather steam.
levels obesity, addiction and teenage
The French president Nicolas Sarkozy
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13
Richard Layard, the LSE professor at the
forefront of happiness economics, agrees
the next stage of civilization should be
*
geared toward better social relations,
particularly when it comes to health. “We
should stop the worship of money and
create a more humane society where the
quality of human experience is the
criterion,” says Lord Layard, who is pushing
the government to provide various
psychological therapies on the NHS.
“Beyond subsistence, the best experience
any society can provide is the feeling that •
other people are on your side."
If this all sounds very cozy, it must be
remembered how bold it is to ask that we
take the foot off the accelerator of growth,
especially at a time when a shrinking
economy equates to millions losing their
jobs.
Peter Victor, an environmental economist
and author of a book called “Managing
Without Growth,” thinks climate change
leaves us without little choice but to slow
down. Nature will not support more people
producing more stuff and ever-increasing
rates.
“You could look at the focus on growth as
a phase in our society, and the next phase
needs to be stability," says Victor, who notes
that growth has failed to wipe out poverty or
unemployment. He thinks more sustainable
societies could share labor around, meaning
working fewer hours and more leisure time.
“It’s difficult to get across that you can
still live well without growth; people want to
assume green technology is only useful if it
continues to grow GDP. There aré powerful
interests who don’t want to change the
world-view, especially when there’s so much
pressure right now to get things back to
normal.”
If we want a society geared toward
happiness, the greatest conceit we have to
overcome may be the idea of staying ahead
of the competition. “We have to ask
ourselves,” says Victor, “why is it so
important to stay ahead of the Chinese and
Indians? Shouldn’t we be pleased at some
people being lifted out of poverty?
“I was trained as an economist and I’m
trying to wean myself off these old
assumptions. Let’s worry about the things
that matter.”
Reprinted from The Big Issue Scotland ©
Street News Service: unvw.street-papers.org
Home
by Patricia Addams
The cat looks at me imploringly
Mama, is this all we got?
I check to see
if her food is bad
and it smelled awful good to me.
Decided it was time to call them
10-year-old split peas lentils.
So I cooked them puppies
surveyed my choices
ate the beans
but the cat food smelled
like it would’ve tasted better.
Power mongers are famous for
getting their nuts
by watching people
eat their pride.
No, it doesn’t rhyme,
but it’s still not art -
I would offer a chair if I had one -
this is my home.