Economic Growth Does not improve happiness - A new Paradigm for Government?

[synthesizer-patel]

It seems that despite increasing standards of living, increased consumption and increased wealth in real terms over the last half century, we are apparently no happier.

The Easterlin Paradox is a key concept in happiness economics. It was postulated by economist Richard Easterlin in the 1974 paper "Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence."[1] It finds that, contrary to expectation, happiness at a national level does not increase with wealth once basic needs are fulfilled.

This concept has recently been revived by Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick, driving media interest in the topic. Recent research has utilised many different forms of measuring happiness, including biological measures, showing similar patterns of results. This goes some way to answering the problems of self-rated happiness.

The implication for government policy is that once basic needs are met, policy should focus not on economic growth or GDP, but rather on increasing life satisfaction or GNH.

discuss.....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...y-reveals-the-truth-about-britons-806326.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easterlin_paradox

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNH