Which Way to Happy?

One of the more recent additions to the more-or-less universally accepted indicators of standard of living is the happiness index. It’s a weird term, considering how adamant we 21st century people are that happiness, like love can’t be measured and should, under no circumstances have ANYTHING to do with economics. Introduced by the King of Bhutan in 1972, it tries to make up for the failings of GNP and per capita income, but falls short already in definition: there isn’t a site on the net, nor a passage in the “new and improved” economics textbooks that flood our school that can tell me in even half-exact terms, what the happiness index really is.

But maybe it’s because “happiness” is in itself such a tricky concept. Word-wise, Mr. Webster could only say that happiness ( Hap´pi`ness, n. ) is good luck; good fortune; prosperity, Microsoft Office Word 2003, more prolific than its predecessor, produces “contentment”, “pleasure”, “cheerfulness”. Freud, perhaps less interested in its pronunciation and linguistic associations, simply believed that it was what every human strived after. And me? I’m not so sure. It’s a big word, and a cool idea. When I think happiness, I’m thinking about the time I jumped into a fountain in Paris with my oldest, closest friend, and came out with soaking red hair and a handful of worthless copper coins. I’m thinking of Sunday breakfasts and the Eels, and the scene in Withnail & I, where Withnail solemnly concludes that he and Marwood are “on holiday by mistake”. You need factors to calculate something, and these are *my* factors. So how on earth does one add my memories, my brilliant days, my “peaceful, easy feelings” to those of a million others? And is the sum of all of that even going to be in numbers?

The happiness index baffles me. More than that, it puts that famous cynical look on my face, the one where my mouth scrunches up and my forehead gets all wrinkled, and makes me wonder who King Jigme Singye Wangchuck’s financial advisor was. I’ll accept that it’s a noble experiment (just like Prohibition in America ) with a reasonable amount of logic behind it, in that it equates a good standard of living with high consumption levels and a sense of fulfillment instead of unevenly-distributed income and dubious literacy levels. But when you deal with happiness, you’re dealing with the emotions of a myriad different people, their personal histories, their personal quirks and achievements, and also with a whole lot of psychobabble about well-being and inner-peace. To attempt to capture this in door-to-door national surveys or annual spending patterns is like delving into a hornet’s nest. But I guess the government of India, for one, feels more warmly towards it- India (corruption, potholes, slums and all) I’ve heard, fares very well on the happiness index…

-Mallika Leuzinger