Happiness Economics

A variety of measures of national income and output are used ineconomics to estimate total economic activity in a Nation , including gross domestic product (GDP), gross national product (GNP), and net national income (NNI). All are specially concerned with counting the total amount of goods and services produced within some economics measure. It incures one's own personal use, or for one's family, is largely left out of these measures, although some attempts are made to include some of those kinds of production by imputing monetary values.national accounts, of which these figures are a part, this began in the 1930s, in the United States and many European countries. The impetus for that major statistical effort was the Great Depression and the rise of Keynsian economics, which addresses a greater role for the government in managing an economy, and made it necessary for governments to obtain accurate information so that their interventions into the economy could proceed as much as possible on the basis of fact.quality of life or social progress in more holistic and psychological terms than GNP or GDP. As a chief economic indicator, GDP has numerous flaws long known to economists. GDP measures the amount of commerce in a nation, but counts remedial and defensive expenditures (such as the costs of security, police, pollution clean up, etc.) as positive contributions to commerce. A better measure of economic well-being would deduct such costs, and add in other non-market benefits (such as volunteer work, unpaid domestic work, and un-priced ecosystem services) in arriving at an indicator of well-being. As economic development on the planet approaches or surpasses the limits of ecosystems to provide resources and absorb human effluents, calling into question the ability of the planet to continue to support civilization (per the arguments of Jared Diamond, among others), many people have called for getting "Beyond GDP" (the title of a recent EU conference) in order to measure progress not as the mere increase in commercial transitions, nor as an increase in specifically economic well-being, but as an increase in general well-being as people themselves subjectively report it. GNH is a strong contributor to this movement to discard measurements of commercial transactions as a key indicator and to instead directly assess changes in the social and psychological well-being of populations.Bhutan's former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who has opened up Bhutan to the age of modernization, He used the phrase to the commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values. At first offered as a casual concept was taken seriously, as the Center for Bhutan Studies, under the leadership of Kaarma Uru, developed a sophisticated survey instrument to measure the population's general level of well-being. The Canadian health epidemiologist Michael Pennock had a major role in the design of the instrument, and uses (what he calls) a "de-Bhutanized" version of the survey in his work in Victoria, British Columbia.quality of life by combining economists' and psychologists' techniques. It relies on more expansive notions of utility than does conventional economics. Although its usefulness is yet to be determined, it has become a subject of interest and often a measure of comparison with the traditional forms of measuring market health such as GDP and GNP. This field of studies is also called " The economy of happiness.”Easterlin paradox and may result from a "hedonic treadmill." This means that aspirations increase with income; after basic needs are met, relative rather than absolute income levels influence well-being. Happiness economists hope to change the way governments view well-being and how to most effectively govern and allocate resources given this paradox. However, other research suggests that no paradox exists, and happiness is linearly related to the logarithm of absolute (real, PPP-adjusted) income, with little or no relative income. this would be augmented by a Livable, Quality Universal Income.

As can be imagined, arriving at a figure for the total production of goods and services in a large region like a nation entails an enormous amount of data-collection and calculation. Although some attempts were made to estimate national incomes as long ago as the 17th century, the systematic keeping of

In order to count a good or service it is necessary to assign some value to it. The value that all of the measures discussed here assign to a good or service is its market value – the price it incures when bought or sold. No attempt is made to estimate the actual usefulness of a product – its use-value – assuming that to be any different from its market value.

Gross Happiness

The concept of gross national happiness (GNH) was developed in an attempt to define an indicator that measures

The term was coined in 1972 by

Happiness economics

The goal of happiness economics is to determine from what source people derive their well-being. Historically, economists have said that well-being is a simple function of income. However, it has been found that once wealth reaches a subsistence level, its effectiveness as a generator of well-being is greatly diminished. This paradox has been referred to as the

The national income of a nation is an estimate of the yearly production of goods and services. The loss of possible uses of the non-human made physical surroundings, named environmental functions, on which humanity is dependent in all its doings remains outside the estimate. Also the present and future production is dependent on these environmental functions. The sustainable national income (SNI) in a given year is an estimate of the production level at which - with the technology in the year of calculation - environmental functions remain available ‘for ever’.

Sustainable National Income

The sustainable national income (SNI) in a certain year is defined as the maximum attainable production level whereby, with the available technology in the year of calculation, vital environmental functions remain available ‘for ever’. The production level in the same year that is registered in the standard national income (NI) does not meet this condition. Environmental functions and their preservation after all fall outside the NI. The NI is therefore always higher than the SNI. The difference gives information about the distance between the present production level and the production level in a sustainable situation. If the distance decreases then we are on the road to environmental sustainability, the part of the production that is based on unsustainable use of the environment decreases. If the distance increases then we are drifting further away from sustainability.

Transition to environmental sustainability

With the present ecological and sustainable technology, population size as well as production and consumption patterns, the sustainable situation Capitalist governments ignore or put off. Although achieving environmental sustainability will require a long period of time. A Transition path to a sustainable situation is only limited by the condition that vital environmental functions must not be irreparably damaged. But must be scenically repaired. In view of the threat that this may happen it seems urgent to wait no longer with a change of course in the direction of

Universal Income Happiness:

A livable Quality Universal Income would achieve better than what is propose by most. The Basic Income, left Basic would impeded happiness.

In Portugal there are complaints of being supported on the basics, yet there is no quality of life. People feel they are merely existing.

Just providing people with basics cheats them out of happiness, achievement, and pursuit of better quality of life. The Basic Earth Universal Network must consider this. A quality income and quality life for all.

For Barbara La Rue