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Happiness
Index by Yank Elliott, MBA and IAHBE Staff Writer Once upon a time a young man of 17 years became King of Bhutan. This small and relatively unspoiled country is bounded on the West, South, and East by India and on the North by the Tibetan province of China. This Northern boundary falls along the Eastern range of the Himalayan Mountains, and there is a permanent snowcap here. The highest unclimbed mountain in the world, Gangkhar Puensum lies among these Northern Bhutan Himalayas. In deference to local spiritual beliefs, mountain climbing of any kind has been prohibited since 2000, so this high peak is likely to remain in its pristine condition. Bhutan’s isolation is compounded by its closed border with Tibet, shutting down any trade or communication with its very large northern neighbor. This corridor has been closed since a border dispute in 1961. Subsistence agriculture and animal husbandry are substantial portions of the Bhutan economy, so this country is a prime example of home-based business. Why? Crafts and other cottage industry endeavors are its main income producers; many Bhutanese are skilled in metalworking and these products are sold to the few tourists and travelers allowed into the country. Cottage industry originally meant home-based business; before the Industrial Revolution, it flourished in the harsh winter months when regular agricultural operations could not be done. Then, as now, extra income was a major goal of home-based entrepreneurs, and so it is in Bhutan. About 70% of Bhutanese are devout Buddhists; they really don’t view their cottage industry operations or anything else they do as economic pursuits to produce goods and wealth. In the West, development is thought to mean economic growth resulting from the belief that more wealth makes people happier. Buddhist religious beliefs held in Bhutan have always viewed development as the acquisition of knowledge. Development in this cultural context has nothing at all to do with economics or wealth. Rather it means learning to overcome misconceptions related to the desire for consumption and acquisition. Of course modern communications and the Internet have put a few cracks in this wall but Bhutan remains a relatively isolated and unspoiled place. Why are we, as small entrepreneurs, in the least way interested in all this? Our small companies are the very essence of life satisfaction, the cornerstone of Gross National Happiness. Bhutan’s culture and religion caused the King, now 32, to take a revolutionary stand in 1987 with respect to government policy. He was well ahead of growing attention by Western economists and other thinkers about the relation of economic growth to individual well-being. When asked by a reporter from the UK’s Financial Times about Bhutan’s slow pace of development, the king replied that “Gross National Happiness (GNH) is more important than Gross National Product (GNP).” This began a commitment to building an economy based on considerations for the country’s unusual culture and Buddhist spiritual values creating a vision to promote unity among citizens. The idea has been around a lot longer than you may think. At the end of the 18th. century the U.S. Declaration of Independence said: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. What would be the result if modern western governments were to adopt this kind of thinking in their economic policies? First let’s define “happiness.” Merriam-Webster gives these definitions: Good fortune Prosperity A state of well-being and contentment A
pleasurable or satisfying experience Those who say that money can't buy happiness don't know where to shop. -Anon. What we call happiness in the strictest sense of the word comes from the (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree. -Sigmund Freud. Happiness is the sublime moment when you get out of your corsets at night. -Joyce Grenfell, actress. These different concepts illustrate the difficulty in forming policy to improve the happiness of individuals. Before the King brought this idea to the world there was no research, no data, and no thinking about economic happiness and how to achieve it. Since 1987 some Western scholars have begun to do research and accumulate data. One researcher examining happiness data is Ruut Veenhoven from Erasmus University in the Netherlands. He developed a series called “Average Life Satisfaction” (1 is low and 10 is high) and matched this with life expectancy to derive “Happy Life Years.” Here are some of his results : Country
Happy Life Years Average Life Satisfaction Dr. Ed Diener from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is another “happiness” researcher and an advocate of considering measures other than economic growth when making public policy decisions. In “Beyond Money,” he and his associates present data and observations supporting their “happiness” ideas. Right at the beginning of this paper, Figure 1 shows that in spite of a steep increase in US GNP since 1940, the amount of life satisfaction is close to level through 2000. This shows why they think there is more to happiness and life satisfaction than growth in Gross National Product. Among the conclusions of these studies about happiness and well-being are these: People high in well-being function more effectively than people low in well-being. Well-being shows people they are achieving their goals. In
a democratic society allowing individual choice, better well-being is
an inherent goal more basic, as the Declaration of Independence contends,
than higher income. After considering all of this new “wealth of nations” data and associated ideas here are a few conclusions government economic policymakers might consider (some may be quite controversial): Life satisfaction data could be used to determine life satisfaction of the elderly and their relatives under different provisions to enable choice of a preferred option. Projected gains in life satisfaction can be compared across very different policy areas such as health and education. Policymakers could then use this information to decide which form of spending (health or education) will lead to the greatest increase in satisfaction. Unemployment is associated with lower life satisfaction. Most of the negative effect of unemployment on life satisfaction results from lack of social relationships rather than the loss of income, so this could support active welfare policies to quickly put the unemployed back to work rather than just boosting their financial support. Global data comparisons suggest that there are diminishing returns from economic development to life satisfaction. This suggests actions such as liberalizing trade policies in favor of less developed nations. With respect to work and leisure it has been found that people frequently compare pay but rarely compare leisure entitlement even though this appears to have a marked impact on their wellbeing. Employees sometimes perceive the idea if I work fewer hours but my colleagues don’t then I will suffer. This argument supports regulations like an enforced 4-day week. Life satisfaction analysis raises the question “are we prepared to pay a price in our own life satisfaction to raise the satisfaction of developing nations?” Most
able-bodied people would say they would rather die than be left unable
to move, but those already paraplegic express a level of life satisfaction
only slightly below that of the able-bodied. Should we let people refuse
treatment if we know it is likely they will subsequently have a satisfying
life in a wheelchair? Working as a home-based entrepreneur, we’re all supporting the GNH concept. We discussed how cottage industry is promoted even by Bhutanese to increase their satisfaction; it provides satisfying employment during a slow season as well as extra income which no one can go without entirely. Small business provides the backbone for many national economies. In Canada 15% of workers are self-employed and they contribute about 24% of GNP. In the US there are nearly 19 million self-employed comprising 70% of all businesses. US self-employment pays over 44% of total private payroll in the country and produces 60 to 80% of new jobs every year. CHECK THIS: 53% of small firms in the US are home-based! What role does self-employment, including the home-based entrepreneur, play in the idea of Gross National Happiness? It provides many of the elements of life satisfaction, including control of one’s employment, meaningful work, and a source of income to some extent controlled by the self-employed person. Working for one’s self is an attractive alternative to the unhappiness expressed by many employees. In February, 2005, The Conference Board reported only about 50% of Americans are satisfied with their jobs, down from 60% in 1995. One quarter of employees say they are showing up for work only to pick up their pay. In the UK the HRMGuide.co.uk reports about one-third of employees dissatisfied with 15% very dissatisfied. All these unhappy people provide home-based entrepreneurs a real opportunity to show there is a better way to life satisfaction. With all this turmoil about happiness, how can we, as entrepreneurs, relate to these ideas and how can we take advantage of niches that will appear as government policies change? The answer is to do as entrepreneurs and explorers have always done. They do as Columbus did when all the gloom and doom experts told him the Earth was flat and he would fall over the edge into who knows where. Columbus never tried to convince the naysayers they were wrong: HE JUST GOT INTO HIS BOAT AND SAILED AWAY! RESOURCES: American
Scientist Online The
Conference Board Diener,
Ed, and Seligman, Martin E.P. “Beyond
Money.” American Psychological Donovan,
Nick, and Halpern, David. “Life
Satisfaction: the state of knowledge and implications Explore
Bhutan Gangkhar
Puensum Google
Scholar Google Search Engine HRMGuide.co.uk Indiana
University School of Law Industry
Canada Industry
Canada Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary Oswald, Andrew J. “Happiness and Economic Performance.” Economic Journal, 1997. SBA
Office of Advocacy US
Census Press Releases U.S.
Library of Congress Yank is a home-based entrepreneur and freelance business writer living in Hurricane Alley, North Carolina, USA. His Website is http://www.furriwhalesworld.com/. Contact Yank at globalbiz@furriwhalesworld.com.
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