Is Happiness a Good Indicator of Quality of Life?

In 1972 the King of the Himalayan nation of Bhutan introduced a fairly new and unconventional concept of social and economic progress measurement – Gross National Happiness. It is a symbol and a manifestation of the ever more widespread belief that GDP and its derivatives (GNP, GDI, GNI etc.) don’t provide what was long thought they do – an imperfect but nevertheless sensible proxy for a nation’s well-being. However, this raises the question: is happiness a better measure. There are reasons to believe that it is not.

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