Can you measure happiness? This question was asked recently by Amanda Jackson on the Micah Challenge blog.
Since the Global Financial Crisis, it seems the old idea of equating more money and more purchases with increased happiness has taken a bit of a beating. We’re finding it’s okay to save, to pay down your debt, to enjoy simple home-made pleasures, and to be content with less. And we’re feeling more happy.
Economists have devised a way to measure happiness. Put simply, in the form of an equation, it goes like this:
life expectancy times life satisfaction divided by ecological footprint = HPI, or Happy Planet Index.
You can take an online survey to calculate your own HPI. And the United Nations last year adopted a resolution that happiness should be included among development indicators. The challenge for us all is how to raise the prominence of non-economic indicators, like happiness and contentment and spirituality, in measuring social progress and wellbeing.
Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 5 Feb 2012.
