Monday, June 20, 2005

Happiness is...

...in the process of being quantified:
Hundreds of academics, farmers, environmentalists, business people, entertainers and health professionals are trying to figure just how to do that, and to convince others that it is just as an important indicator of a country's success as its economic well-being...

Colman and other delegates contend that a better way of determining a person's well-being and the well-being of their surroundings is by looking at several factors - environmental preservation, sustainable economic development, cultural promotion and good governance.

A fascinating initiative to be sure, and one that the NDP should be strongly supporting (while emphasizing that continued economic development is still a huge part of the total package). This is precisely the kind of index which, if widely reported and accepted, could start to put some kind of easily-understandable measure on the importance of progresive policies.

Of course there are problems in the project. Nice though it would be to put together an index on all these ideas, there's always the concern that the attendees themselves will miss other important issues. And the weighting of the actual factors must be close to impossible. But anywhere the discussion turns toward "which of good government, economic growth and environmental protection is most important, and how do we encourage all three?" rather than "how can we put this government out of its misery?", progress is being made.

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