BIZCHINA / Review & Analysis
Measuring happiness
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-14 08:33
It is a real challenge to substantiate something that is insubstantial.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has this ambition. It is
considering drafting a happiness index of the Chinese people to better
direct our decision makers' policy-making.
The bureau said it would include more human factors, including the
happiness index, in its statistics system, reflecting more of the
non-economic side of people's well-being.
A security guard walks past a poster of a Chinese model in Beijing
September 13, 2006. China will formulate a new "happiness index" this
year to include living conditions, the environment and salary, state
television said on Wednesday. [Reuters]
While gross domestic product (GDP) is technically calculable, overall
domestic happiness would seem not to be. It is, in essence, the
psychological state of satisfaction, hedonic adaptation and social
comparison - which can hardly be represented in figures.
Tempted by the convenience of calculable indices in gauging the world,
economists have never given up the attempt to measure the spiritual side
of the people. So comes the so-called hedonomics, or happiness economics.
Various institutions and government departments in the developed world
have drafted similar human feeling indices to help assess public policies.
While the sense of happiness cannot be accurately calculated, it can to
an extent be reflected by using some scientific tools, such as meaningful
surveys.
The results can help us find out why people are dissatisfied and provide
clues for public policy-making.
The global trend to study people's happiness by economic methodology is a
sign of a focus shift from traditional material affluence to people's
spiritual well-being.
China is doing well to incorporate that trend. It is pushing economic
growth, but also attaching increasing importance to non-economic aspects,
a drive mirrored by the government's efforts to build a harmonious
society.
It has been recognized that unrestrained pursuit of GDP will not lead to
harmony. Inadequate attention to the environment and human development
will offset economic growth.
As a transitional society, China is especially vulnerable to such a
development trap. Money cannot buy happiness, nor can economic growth.
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