International Happiness Day

Today is the United Nations' International Happiness Day. It sounds a little fluffy, but underneath the surface there lingers an important and controversial statement about how countries should pursue development. Traditionally, progress has been measured not in terms of social well-being but economic well-being.  International Happiness Day sounds fluffy, but makes a radical statement: that society should consider social well-being as a form of wealth in itself.

It is true that economic progress reflects societal well-being to a strong degree, but many scholars now recognize that beyond a certain point they are no longer directly related. As Robert F. Kennedy so famously put it:

"Our gross national product - if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them... It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

"Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play... It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."  [1]

Measuring happiness is a complex venture. Economic metrics are a lot easier to handle. Does that make happiness any less important for society, though?