The Wealth in Happiness

In 2008, when 28-year-old Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck was crowned king of Bhutan, he made two changes to his country. First, he democratized the nation. Second, he established Gross National Happiness, or GNH, as the principal indicator to measure his country’s success, striving to create an environment for happiness where the intangible experience is more valuable than monetary output. The calculation factors in well-being, time use, community vitality, culture, health, education, environmental diversity, living standard, and governance, allowing countries to create a habitat for happiness resulting in both psychological and monetary wealth.

What we count actually matters.

Einstein once said, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” For decades, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has measured the success of a country, but this gauge has its faults. Measuring the market value of the goods and services that a country produces, GDP calculates the tangible. But are money and success cohesive entities? We can count how many dollars we make, but that doesn't measure our overall success or happiness. And worse, what if what we have been counting is miscounted or unreliable? A new kind of economics is on the horizon. Instead of counting the exchange of goods and services, some are shifting their focus to measure the success of a country based on happiness, or the intangible–that which counts, but is hard to count.

Using dimensions such as time use, the Bhutanese people can assess the value of non-work time for happiness and the ability to invest in activities such as rest, personal care, community participation, education and learning, religious activities, social and cultural activities, sports, leisure and travel–anything that can create a rich, fruitful life.

Good governance allows the Bhutanese people to evaluate better how their government functions, placing importance on topics such as their efficacy, honesty, and quality. Measuring the effectiveness of the government ensures that they will be paying attention to the happiness and success of the Bhutan people.

In Bhutan, character of the individual predominates. King Khesar said in his coronation address, “Treasure the qualities of a good human being–honesty, kindness, charity, integrity, unity, respect…My deepest concern is that as the world changes we may lose these fundamental values on which rest our character as a nation and people… As long as we continue to pursue the simple and timeless goal of being good human beings, and as long as we strive to build a nation that stands for everything that is good, we can ensure that our future generations for hundreds of years will live in happiness and peace.”

The world is listening.

The GNH measurement that started in Butuan has sparked a worldwide movement. The Gross National Happiness conference in 2009 hosted 46 nations. The United States has a constituency. The GNH American movement, based out of Vermont, is working to achieve “a sustainable future, based on the use of a comprehensive set of social progress indicators that reflects our American values and truly supports life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Nations around the world are catching on to the message of GNH realizing that the well-being of people must be at the forefront of a government’s ideology. The President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, has also joined the movement to measure happiness. Sarkozy has been quoted as saying, “ For years, people said that finance was a formidable creator of wealth, only to discover one day that it accumulated so many risks that the world almost plunged into chaos.” Sarkozy hopes to foster a new type of wealth creating a future where finance does not blindly supersede measuring-dimensions such as work-life balance, relationships, and education.

The online world, too, is getting involved. Facebook has realized the importance of emphasizing positivity. In conjunction with the United States GNH organization, they have developed an application that measures happiness of a community based on status updates, gathering statistics on a country’s overall happiness.

Happiness may not be something that we can quantify, but our happiness is the culmination of all other values in our life. Chip Conley, CEO of Joie De Vivre Hospitality, in a speech given for TED conference says, “I actually think it’s time to think about what we count because what we actually count truly counts.” Conley spent time in Bhutan studying the GNH principles and recognizes their importance. The dimensions that Bhutan uses to create a “habitat for happiness” present an alternative way of evaluating productivity–aside from purely economic standards.

In the words of King Khesar, “A GNH society means the creation of an enlightened society in which happiness and well-being of all people and sentient beings is the ultimate purpose of governance.” In Bhutan, motivation in life is based on living a fruitful, meaningful life rather than focusing merely on reaping great financial rewards–a philosophy that parts of which can be adopted by any nation.

We know the result of measuring the tangible. That experiment was and will continue to be costly. If valuing only what can be easily counted doesn’t work, then perhaps we all ought to think deeply about what we count and how it counts for our lives. The consequences seem to be too great not to heed such shrewd insight.