Happynomics - England creates national happiness index

David Cameron, England's Prime Minister, has devised a system for tracking their national happiness :) - see this article from the Irish Times or this from the NY Times).  Apparently they want to ask a portion of their population four questions:

1. How happy did you feel yesterday?  

2. How anxious did you feel yesterday?  

3. How satisfied are you with your life nowadays? 

4. To what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

They will then add up all the responses and calculate and publish an index quarterly, similarly to the way Gross Domestic Product (national spending) is looked at now.  The article mentions that there comes a point (I believe research has estimated it at about $70,000 annual income) when increased wealth no longer makes people happier.  At this point, enough is enough, and the law of Diminishing Returns begins to set in.  For example, buying a house when you used to be homeless might make you a lot happier!  But buying a second house after the first one, probably not as much.

My take: I think this is a great idea!  For too long, countries have used GDP and GDP per capita as one of the only ways of measuring how the country is doing.  As to how this could affect public policy, research shows that after basic needs are met, happiness is more affected by relative income - so governments should try to preserve income equality.  Being happy is also a more ambitious goal than "maximizing gdp", because it takes into account the environment, culture, infrastructure, commutes, and mood of a place and time.  And who would argue that a country would be worse off if their GDP decreased but they became happier?  For some more examples of the shortcomings of GDP I will leave you with this quote from one of my heroes Robert Kennedy:

"Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. 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 the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. 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 does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. 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."