Gross National Happiness

Gross National Happiness (GNH) is an attempt to define a standard of living in more holistic and psychological terms than Gross National Product.

The term was coined by Bhutan's King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972. It signalled his commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values. Like many worthy moral goals it is somewhat easier to state than to achieve, nonetheless, it serves as a unifying vision for the Five Year planning process and all the derived planning documents that guide the economic and development plans to the country.

One of many alternative indicators

Unlike the Genuine Progress Indicator which actually tries to measure well-being, the GNH does not attempt to quantify happiness. The two measures agree, however, that well-being is more relevant and important than consumption. The problem is that GNH depends on a series of subjective judgements about moral values. In practice this means that it is open to whoever defines the frame of reference, invariably governments, to define GNH in a way that suits their interests.

Alternative indicators of economic progress have also been supported by a number of NGOs such as the UK's New Economics Foundation, and are employed in some governments notably in Europe and Canada.

GNH Conference

An international conference on GNH was held in Nova Scotia in June 2005, an event to which Shambhala Buddhists attached special significance.

References

• Layard, Richard (2005), Happiness: Lessons from a new Science, The Penguin Press

External links

• Nadia Mustafa, Time, 10 January 2005, "What About Gross National Happiness?" [1]
• Rajni Bakshi, Resurgence, 25 January 2005, "Gross National Happiness" [2]
• "Gross National Happiness - a set of discussion papers", Centre for Bhutan Studies [3]
• Institute of Empirical Research in Economics, Zurich University [4] – Working papers [5] search with "happiness"
• Frank Dixon, Innovest Inc. February 2004, "Gross National Happiness: Improving Unsustainable Western Economic Systems" [6]
• BBC Story of Bhutanese Refugees [7]
• "A New Measure of Well-Being From a Happy Little Kingdom". The New York Times. October 4. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)