Is it time to put happiness above the economy?

With the marriage and presidential age (whatever that was all about) referenda dealt with by the Irish electorate and the results digested, there is a need for a new story arc for the media to get their teeth into.

Luckily, we are coming to the end of the current Government’s  five year cycle in power and all political movers and shakers will be keen to make a splash in the coming weeks and months. If the results are anything like as entertaining as the Carlow/ Kilkenny by-election debate on Vincent Browne a few weeks ago then we are in for a golden age of Irish broadcasting.

Inevitably, the key battle will be fought over the economy, the Stalingrad of Irish politics. Can Fine Gael and Labour make a convincing argument that through their diligence and leadership we have emerged from the darkness of recession? Or will the opposition rally us against the politics of austerity and inequality that have been imposed? There will be passing skirmishes dealing with the state the HSE is in, but as a nation we’re probably at the point where the idea of a healthcare system in good working order is an almost meaningless concept.

[pullquote] “All a growing GNP figure tells us is that there is more money washing through the Irish economy… [/pullquote]

But is our focus on the economy and GNP the biggest red herring of them all? After all GNP should only ever be at best an indicator of performance rather than the end goal it has become. All a growing GNP figure tells us is that there is more money washing through the Irish economy, which in theory means we all have more to spend, which in theory makes us all happier, 3.5% happier than last year at the current rate. Two giant hypothetical leaps away from genuine meaning. Surely this is a flawed way to aggregate government performance, but unfortunately it’s the metric that the global community has decided on.

But not in Bhutan! The Bhutanese have  totally abandoned GNP in favour of GNH, Gross National Happiness as their key measure. The Himalayan mountain kingdom switched in 1972 when the fourth Dragon King (I swear I’m not quoting from a Scientologist handbook) introduced it as a means of building a society in accordance with Buddhist spiritual values, rather than Western commercial values which are represented by GNP.

It sounds like the type of well-meaning, but ultimately impractical and subjective, fluff that a bunch of J1ers would come up with on a trip to Burning Man. Yet it has been developed into an increasingly well regarded and comprehensive index. Both Western and Eastern economists and politicians have contributed to the movement to the point that the UN General Assembly has adopted happiness as part of their global development agenda.

[pullquote] “This is a potential strength of the system in that it doesn’t offer a set of numbers to be gamed by the establishment, but instead offers an ethos to be adhered to… [/pullquote]

GNH has four key pillars: sustainable development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, environmental conservation and the establishment of good governance. Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, the third King of Bhutan, said, “For my nation today, GNH is the bridge between the fundamental values of kindness, equality and humanity and the necessary pursuit of economic growth.”  The sentiment would be hard for even the most ardent capitalist to argue with. The sentiment probably wouldn’t be an issue in  an attempt to launch it in any Western country, but rather the elusive nature of happiness and the difficulty pinning it down against any measures reliably.

On the other hand, this is a potential strength of the system in that it doesn’t offer a set of numbers to be gamed by the establishment, but instead offers an ethos to be adhered to, a societal perspective. As explored in the seminal TV show ‘The Wire’, statistical analysis has a habit of breaking down completely as soon as people figure out how to exploit the numbers.

The worst of this is exemplified by what’s known as ‘the cobra effect’. In India in the 1800s the British authorities became concerned by the increasing numbers of cobras in close proximity to humans and introduced rewards for anyone who could present them with a dead cobra. This inspired some entrepreneurial types to start breeding the cobras and make a nice little earner from the bounties that they received. When the authorities realised what was happening they cancelled the rewards. “Fair enough” said the cobra farmers and released their stock to roam the streets freely. Never underestimate someone who’s options are so grim that they will get into the cobra breeding game if necessary.

So how is GNH working out for the Bhutanese? In the last 20 years Bhutan has doubled the life expectancy of its population, enrolled almost 100% of children in primary education (from a base of 25% in 1988), established universal healthcare and committed 60% of its land to forestry in perpetuity in the quest to remain carbon neutral. It also has a monthly pedestrian day when all private vehicles are banned from the roads.

However, the country remains one of the poorest on earth with a majority surviving on subsistence farming and 70% living without electricity. Bhutan only introduced democracy in 2008 and has some of the most hostile, if beautiful, terrain for human settlement. The people themselves are under no illusions that they live in some kind of Shangri La either with current Prime Minister Tshering Togbay commenting to The Guardian : “We are in a phase where there are unprecedented divorce rates, domestic violence, drug abuse and suicide”.

In spite of the difficulty that Bhutan is experiencing there is an increasing appetite for a more holistic approach to governance, or at least the measurement of governance. Possibly as a result of the global financial crisis, there is growing belief that a model based on continuous growth in a world with finite resources needs to be overhauled. Thailand, South Korea, Canada, Dubai and the UK to name a few have released their own versions of the happiness index. Perhaps it is time Ireland started putting its own model together, Gross National Craic anyone?  Hopefully we won’t have to wait for three dragon kings to come and go before we get it done.