Are you happy? When do people feel happiness? If they don’t have anything to eat make them happy, or if their babies are dying from pneumonia is a happy situation. If they live under Bomb and there is no hope in their country makes them feel as developed and happy nation. Of course, normal human in the mainstream is not happy in any above conditions and circumstances. If you feel free, just, fare, hopeful, sound, safe, with access to food, clean water, education, health care, medicine, shelter, job and security, then you feel fine and it sounds well being and make you happy.
Country of Bhutan came with the idea of happiness index as an indicator for sustainable development. Based on the Global Projection of Subjective Well-being Study, Denmark is the happiest nation in the world, and Switzerland, Austria, Iceland, Bahamas are 2nd to 5th happiest nations. United States is 23rd and United Kingdom 41st. Iran 96th and Sudan, Ukraine, Moldova, Congo, Zimbabwe and Burundi with 173rd to 178th are among less happy nations in the world.
By using GIS 9.2 software and with using data of Human development report, 2007, I compared GDP/capita and happiness index of Eastern Mediterranean countries (EM Regional Office of WHO), unfortunately because of war there is no data about Iraq and Afghanistan. Look at Yemen, in this poor country it seems people are happier than some countries with much higher GDP/capita.
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Syamak,
Congratulations on the blog! I wanted to write the following in an email, but I saw it was to relavant to the discussion you have here, so I’ll just share it…
I’m reading this book named ‘The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth’ by Benjamin Friedman (not to be confused with Milton or Thomas Friedman) who teaches political economics at Harvard.
His argument is is similar to the study you have mentioned here. However, his methodology does not use GIS but a simple regression model. His independent variable is individual economic growth, and his dependent variable is political and social liberalization. He explains that inflation adjusted income growth, rather than simply an existing high standard of living, is key to effecting political and social growth in the developing world, and shows that even the wealthiest nations put their democratic values at risk when income levels stand still.
I must admit that I like his variable selection better. GDP levels (or even GDP growth) as you see in the video of Thomas Hahns that you have introduced earlier in this blog are not an exact identifier of how the wealth is distributed in the society and they also tend to ignore inflation which is reflected in the value of the national currency relative to the instrument that it is pegged on.
The perfect example of this is Iran in past few years that despite the overwhelming rise in oil prices, and hence in GDP:
(1) Due to inflation the value of the Rial has fallen agianst the value of gold
(2) The inflation adjusted income of the majority of the people has fallen even steeper due to the unfair distribution of wealth.
I think you would enjoy this book. Like Castells book, it is a both relatively easy read, and yet very well documented and referenced. The book is 400 pages with a 100 page bibliography! I strongly would recommend it to you.
Dear Babak,
Thanks so much for sharing the reading and the measures, I agree with your point about GDP/capita, the reason that I used GDP just I wanted to show the essence of the new indicator (Happiness) and also GDP is ready to use in Human Development report. I hope I can read the book soon, again thanks and have a wonderful time.
Syamak
Syamak, I just don’t feel comfortable to measure a qualitative variable with only a small set of quantitative measures. Happiness is a state of feeling with a very complex association with so many internal and external factors. The causal association between them are influenced so deeply by other feelings. It is not just the feeling but even the definition of happiness differs from one person to the other one. Let’s say an example; where I grow up, Iran, I was thought that laughing loud is rude, kills my spirit, and makes me look silly. I was thought “pain” on the other side, makes my spirit glow, strong my heart, and is necessary for being able to understand how people in pain live and feel. I truly believed in these practices and truly enjoyed being in pain. I never laughed loud in my young ages. Being in US, showed me the other side of the coin. How can I measure my happiness back in Iran and here in US? I know that your study is an ecological type of work and not necessary applicable to individual experiences. But lets measure valuable concepts such as happiness more seriously. What do you think?
Banafsheh,
Absolutely, I agree with you in terms of cultural differences and the idea that those investigators who work on this issue should take into account these differences. The happiness index is a subjective measure, and it is very difficult to measure especially in a Transcultural situation. The point is that happiness Index reexamines the concept of economic growth by taking into account non-economic factors that hinder sustainable development. Bhutan’s initiative has inspired tremendous academic research and dialogue on the importance of balancing economic development with the social, cultural and environmental imperatives of a society.
Syamak
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