{"id":135259,"date":"2019-06-10T12:00:56","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T11:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=135259"},"modified":"2019-06-10T10:08:39","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T09:08:39","slug":"forget-gdp-new-zealand-is-prioritizing-gross-national-well-being","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/06\/forget-gdp-new-zealand-is-prioritizing-gross-national-well-being\/","title":{"rendered":"Forget GDP \u2014 New Zealand Is Prioritizing Gross National Well-Being"},"content":{"rendered":"

The country\u2019s new \u201cwell-being budget\u201d emphasizes citizen happiness over capitalist gain.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wants to prioritize national well-being. Hagen Hopkins\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

8 Jun 2019 – <\/em>We usually think of a country\u2019s wealth or capital in terms of its financial bottom line: its gross domestic product. But New Zealand challenged the world to assess it in terms of a very different commodity, as the country released the first-ever \u201cwell-being budget\u201d<\/a> on May 30.<\/p>\n

To Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the purpose of government spending is to ensure citizens\u2019 health and life satisfaction, and that \u2014 not wealth or economic growth \u2014 is the metric by which a country\u2019s progress should be measured. GDP alone, she said<\/a>, \u201cdoes not guarantee improvement to our living standards\u201d and nor does it \u201ctake into account who benefits and who is left out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The budget requires all new spending to go toward five specific well-being goals: bolstering mental health, reducing child poverty, supporting indigenous peoples, moving to a low-carbon-emission economy, and flourishing in a digital age.<\/p>\n

To measure progress toward these goals, New Zealand will use 61 indicators tracking everything from loneliness to trust in government institutions, alongside more traditional issues like water quality.<\/p>\n

Ardern, who has spoken of empathy<\/a> as the trait most needed in political leaders nowadays, said<\/a> that her government has \u201claid the foundation for not just one well-being budget, but a different approach for government decision-making altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n

This approach appeals to many progressives, but it\u2019s also attracted criticism from some who think it\u2019s airy-fairy marketing spin at best and fiscally irresponsible policy at worst.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealanders won\u2019t benefit from a government that is ignoring the slowing economy and focusing instead on branding,\u201d said<\/a> Amy Adams, a lawmaker in the opposition center-right National Party, in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019re facing significant economic risks over coming years, but this government is focusing on a marketing campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics<\/a> worry that Ardern\u2019s approach will set the country back financially, and argue that it\u2019s a government\u2019s responsibility to look out for overall economic success rather than the happiness of individuals. Some think prioritizing the latter is ineffective. \u201cIf addiction and suicide rates fail to improve, will the government be prepared to dial back this spending?\u201d said<\/a> Louis Houlbrooke of the New Zealand Taxpayers\u2019 Union. \u201cOr will it just throw more money into the black hole?\u201d<\/p>\n

Though its effectiveness has yet to be tested, the government\u2019s plan does seem to be a good-faith effort to try something new. For instance, it\u2019s investing more than $200 million in services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, which Ardern said is \u201cthe biggest single investment ever\u201d in the issue in New Zealand\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Ardern\u2019s supporters also emphasize that money isn\u2019t the only type of capital that matters. Mental health and a sense of community, for example, are equally important forms of capital even though they may be more intangible.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an approach that merits serious consideration. At a time when some argue<\/a> the traditional capitalist model has made us more anxious and isolated than previous generations, defining success less strictly in terms of wealth and more in terms of overall well-being is likely to appeal to many people. Other countries may come to embrace New Zealand\u2019s approach. In fact, some have already anticipated it.<\/p>\n

The history of using well-being to measure a country\u2019s success<\/strong><\/p>\n

New Zealand isn\u2019t the first country to consider the well-being approach, though it is the first to release a budget explicitly centered around that concept.<\/p>\n

The fourth king of Bhutan coined the term \u201cgross national happiness\u201d<\/a> in the 1970s, when he began asserting that \u201cGross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product.\u201d It was more than just a quippy one-liner. By 2008, Bhutan had officially enshrined GNH in its constitution.<\/p>\n

Amid the global financial crisis, national happiness became the subject of policy conferences<\/a> and college courses<\/a>. France commissioned a study on it, which leading economists \u2014 Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz, and Jean-Paul Fitouss \u2014 completed in 2009. In 2011, the OECD released its first well-being report<\/a> on its member countries, and in 2012, the UN began releasing its annual world happiness report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This year, Finland, Denmark, and Norway<\/a> earned the top three spots in the international ranking of happiest countries. Bhutan came in 95th place.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Bhutan continues to closely monitor its 800,000 citizens\u2019 happiness as its most precious commodity. NPR has reported on the process<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Every five years under the direction of the Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH Research<\/a>, survey-takers fan out across the country to conduct questionnaires of some 8,000 randomly selected households.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bhutan asks about 300 questions. \u2026 Happily, the participants are compensated a day\u2019s wage.<\/em><\/p>\n

As one of the center\u2019s lead happy index researchers, [Dorji] Penjore says, \u201cWe try to measure … all forms of capital. So that is the difference between GDP and GNH.\u201d He says, for example, the government asks people about their spirituality: \u201cDo you meditate?\u201d says Penjore. \u201cHow frequently do you pray?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

They ask how much time and money you devote to your community, how many hours you sleep and how many hours you work. Some questions might startle an American: How often do you quarrel with your family? How long do you stay away from them? Do you trust your neighbors?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bhutan\u2019s guiding philosophy has inspired others, like the United Arab Emirates. In 2016, the country created a new cabinet position with a lofty title: minister of state for happiness and well-being. A woman named Ohood bint Khalfan Roumi got the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is serious business for the government,\u201d she told<\/a> the Los Angeles Times. \u201cWhat is the purpose of government if it does not work toward the happiness of the people? It\u2019s the duty and role of the government to create the right conditions for people to choose to be happy.\u201d She said those conditions include everything from good infrastructure to making sure people feel safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people may laugh at [the idea of nurturing] happiness, thinking it is silly and fluffy,\u201d Roumi added. \u201cI assure you, it\u2019s a science. It touches on medicine, health, social sciences.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of her initiatives was a \u201chappiness patrol\u201d in Abu Dhabi, which involved police officers rewarding citizens for good behavior instead of just punishing them for infractions. Motorists who obeyed the rules of the road, for example, were given gift vouchers.<\/p>\n

The well-being approach is also gaining momentum in Latin America. In 2013, Ecuador appointed a state secretary of buen vivir<\/a>, an understanding of the good life \u2014 rooted in indigenous spirituality \u2014 that entails living in harmony with the natural environment. And Venezuela created a vice ministry of \u201cSupreme Social Happiness\u201d<\/a> (though given the political and economic crisis currently unfolding under President Nicolas Maduro, it\u2019s hard to imagine much social happiness flourishing there in the short term).<\/p>\n

New Zealand has gone one step further than all these countries by deciding to make well-being the organizing principle of its national budget. The results of this grand social experiment will be watched closely over the coming years not only by New Zealanders, but also by governments worldwide. How the experiment turns out will likely influence their willingness to try it, too.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Sigal Samuel is a staff writer for <\/em>Vox’s Future Perfect. She writes about artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and the intersection of technology and religion. Previously, she was the religion editor at<\/em> The Atlantic. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and her BA in Philosophy from McGill University.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 vox.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8 Jun 2019 – We usually think of a country\u2019s wealth or capital in terms of its gross domestic product. But New Zealand challenged the world to assess it in terms of a very different commodity, as the country released the first-ever \u201cwell-being budget\u201d on May 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":135260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[487,444,119,109,985,380],"class_list":["post-135259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","tag-human-rights","tag-nonviolence","tag-peace","tag-politics","tag-social-justice","tag-solutions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}