Question

• View a video about measuring gross national happiness:
• Write a discussion post that answers the following questions:
  • Does the GDP really measure happiness? Why or why not?
  • What elements of happiness do wealth and productivity miss? What elements of happiness do they measure?
  • What is the HDI indicator? What do you think this indicator would say about the United States’ well-being? Explain.

Answer 1

The GDP or the gross domestic product of an economy measures the value of goods an economy produces in a given year.GDP and even GDP per capita gives us no idea about the happines of an economy because it does nt tell us about income distribution in an economy, whether has a healthy environment , whether it has a proper education system , proper transport system, proper healthcare etc.

Wealth and Productivity miss mostly the same elements of happiness , such as they fail to tell us anything about the cultural preservation and promotion of an economy, the environmental conservation, medical facility, education facilities, overall lifestyle and living standard in an economy.For example, China is growing fast and has high productivity, but is accompanied by a high level of pollution, which lowers the living quality.

The elements of happiness that wealth and productivity measure are self sustainibility, well being, good governance etc.

HDI stands for Human Development index, which indicates how good an economy is doing economically and socially.

It is a weighted average of three components:

1.Life expectancy at birth

2.Expected years of schooling.

3.GNI per capita.

United states has a very good GNI per capita, being the richest countery and expected years of schooling(presence of best schools and higher institutions along with decent expected life span of individuals, therefore it should perform well in HDI indicator.It should be highlynranked among the countries.