Thailand sets its sights on gross domestic ‘happiness’

BANGKOK – People in Thailand’s impoverished northeast are the poorest in the country, but according to a new measure of social well-being, they are also the happiest.

Based on factors including life expectancy, job satisfaction, health and family relationships, people in north-eastern Thailand are happier than the rest of the country – even though they earn less than one third of the nation’s average income of 2 700 dollars a year. “Even though people in the northeast are not rich, they are happy because of local tradition and culture, relations with their families and communities and partly because they have adopted the concept of the sufficiency economy,” said researcher Noppadon Kannikar.Noppadon is a founding member of the Well-Being Index Networks, created earlier this year to develop a way to quantify the nation’s “gross domestic happiness” – using a broad range of indicators of well-being and prosperity.The finance ministry has tossed around the idea since before the September 19 coup, as a way to determine whether growth in the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) was improving the lives of Thais.But the concept has taken a new prominence since military-installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont announced shortly after taking office that he would focus on making the nation happier, rather than just richer.Part of that call is simply paying respect to the nation’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has long advocated a “sufficiency economy” – a vague economic concept aimed at sustainable growth and investment levels appropriate to the country’s resources.It stresses the traditional Buddhist value of moderation, and stands in sharp contrast to the gung-ho capitalist approach of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.The idea of gross domestic happiness is most famously applied in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, where the government has made it one of the most important measures of economic well-being.Thailand has long been intrigued by the concept, which appeals to its Buddhist values, but developing a measure of a nation’s happiness is also a growing field of study in economics and psychology.Even though Thailand bills itself as the ‘Land of Smiles’, one international study this year found that Thailand is less happy than neighbours like Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia.The British think-tank New Economic Foundation developed its scale mainly based on life expectancy and the management of natural resources.Thailand’s own economic think-tank, the National Economic and Social Development Board, is trying to develop a broader measure of national prosperity.”GDP just reflects the economic dimension, which is not enough to measure the happiness of the Thai people.It depends how you define your happiness,” said Kitisak Sinthubanich, the board’s deputy secretary general.”We are considering ways to find ‘common goods’ such as quality of life and life satisfaction, that would quantify people’s happiness,” he told AFP.The concern about happiness is increasingly shared by more developed nations, where public worries about social concerns – such as health and education – often rank higher than the economy.”There is an increasing political interest in using measures of happiness as a national indicator in conjunction with measures of wealth,” said Adrian White, an analytic social psychologist at Britain’s University of Leicester.For example, a recent BBC survey found that 81 per cent of Britons think the government should focus on making people happier rather than wealthier.”Further analysis showed that a nation’s level of happiness was most closely associated with health, followed by wealth and provision of education,” White said.”There is a belief that capitalism leads to unhappy people,” he added.Noppadon agreed, saying that economic growth often leads to environmental problems that damage people’s well-being.”It is not too late to adopt the GNH (gross national happiness) to use along with the GDP to measure the people’s well-being in order to maintain a balance in the nation’s economic development,” he said.Nampa-AFP”Even though people in the northeast are not rich, they are happy because of local tradition and culture, relations with their families and communities and partly because they have adopted the concept of the sufficiency economy,” said researcher Noppadon Kannikar.Noppadon is a founding member of the Well-Being Index Networks, created earlier this year to develop a way to quantify the nation’s “gross domestic happiness” – using a broad range of indicators of well-being and prosperity.The finance ministry has tossed around the idea since before the September 19 coup, as a way to determine whether growth in the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) was improving the lives of Thais.But the concept has taken a new prominence since military-installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont announced shortly after taking office that he would focus on making the nation happier, rather than just richer.Part of that call is simply paying respect to the nation’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has long advocated a “sufficiency economy” – a vague economic concept aimed at sustainable growth and investment levels appropriate to the country’s resources.It stresses the traditional Buddhist value of moderation, and stands in sharp contrast to the gung-ho capitalist approach of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.The idea of gross domestic happiness is most famously applied in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, where the government has made it one of the most important measures of economic well-being.Thailand has long been intrigued by the concept, which appeals to its Buddhist values, but developing a measure of a nation’s happiness is also a growing field of study in economics and psychology.Even though Thailand bills itself as the ‘Land of Smiles’, one international study this year found that Thailand is less happy than neighbours like Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia.The British think-tank New Economic Foundation developed its scale mainly based on life expectancy and the management of natural resources.Thailand’s own economic think-tank, the National Economic and Social Development Board, is trying to develop a broader measure of national prosperity.”GDP just reflects the economic dimension, which is not enough to measure the happiness of the Thai people.It depends how you define your happiness,” said Kitisak Sinthubanich, the board’s deputy secretary general.”We are considering ways to find ‘common goods’ such as quality of life and life satisfaction, that would quantify people’s happiness,” he told AFP.The concern about happiness is increasingly shared by more developed nations, where public worries about social concerns – such as health and education – often rank higher than the economy.”There is an increasing political interest in using measures of happiness as a national indicator in conjunction with measures of wealth,” said Adrian White, an analytic social psychologist at Britain’s University of Leicester.For example, a recent BBC survey found that 81 per cent of Britons think the government should focus on making people happier rather than wealthier.”Further analysis showed that a nation’s level of happiness was most closely associated with health, followed by wealth and provision of education,” White said.”There is a belief that capitalism leads to unhappy people,” he added.Noppadon agreed, saying that economic growth often leads to environmental problems that damage people’s well-being.”It is not too late to adopt the GNH (gross national happiness) to use along with the GDP to measure the people’s well-being in order to maintain a balance in the nation’s economic development,” he said.Nampa-AFP