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Happiness as an economic policy: Re-thinking GDP at the UN

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On Monday at the UN, the Prime Minister of Bhutan is convening a summit titled Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm.  The idea is to advance a movement to get the world's leaders to think differently about how they measure success.  In short: there's more to life than amassing money.  And the future of the planet depends on changing the way we think.

Already, a growing number of people are doing that.  Over 200 participants from around the world, ranging from behavioral economists, spiritual leaders, environmentalists and academics will be in attendance.  They believe, from their particular perches, that the GDP is a faulty metric--that measuring sheer economics isn't enough.

The President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, is delivering the keynote address.  (Her country is heralded as happy for abolishing its military and maintaining the environment.)  Esteemed economists Lord Richard Layard and Joseph Stieglitz will speak.  So will the Venerable Matthieu Richard, a Buddhist monk.  The founder of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, will be there.)

Before you dismiss "happy" as a superficial word, or start to worry that someone in a country you may not be familiar with is attempting to foist some Orwellian gauge of what's good for you on the rest of the world, take a closer look at what's being discussed.  At the centerpiece of the discussion is Bhutan's long-standing commitment to Gross National Happiness.

For much of the forty years since the phrase was first uttered casually by the country's fourth king, GNH was simply an outgrowth of the Buddhist philosophy that had long guided Bhutan:  A commitment not to grow too fast. To not grow the economy at the expense of the well-being of the people, or the environment.  To maintain leadership that can be trusted.  To respect and celebrate your cultural heritage rather than be swallowed up by the menacing forces of globalization.

Ironically, it's only because westerners wanted a scale to quantify these lofty ideals that Bhutan did so.  Outsiders intrigued by GNH (and collapsing from the weight of over-development and its discontents) have clambered for Bhutan to develop a specific scale to measure happiness, as if creating well-being were as simple as taking a magic diet pill.

Now, myriad studies by those who "get" it are showing what Bhutan knew long ago: that working together in community toward shared goals, living a balanced, healthy life that involves time for interaction with each other, time and again trumps making piles of cash.  As soon as your basic needs are covered, more money and more stuff don't buy happiness.

Another irony, as evidenced by a mounting financial crisis being faced by Bhutan, as well as its long-ago expulsion of Bhutanese considered not to be ethnically pure, is that living harmoniously a la GNH isn't necessarily a formula that's simple to follow.

Governments large and small, from Britain to Spain to Vermont and Seattle, have been examining Bhutan and the principles of sustainable growth during these last precarious years on the planet. On Monday at the UN, great minds will be focused on how to take the principles and get more people to buy-in.

The reality of implementation is another story.

Check out the two-page documents submitted by many of the attendees as an excellent primer to what's being proposed.