How are you? How ya doing? People ask this question of each other often.
They’re not referring just to physical health nor is it a question about financial standing. It’s a question about well-being, general well-being. While it may be rare that the person asking is really looking for a true and detailed response to the question, it is a way that we humans check in with each other. We all know how important well-being and happiness is.
In the thick of an election campaign, we hear everything – but nothing – about well-being. Some politicians, for instance, speak with fervour about pipelines and tankers, about how the only salvation for our province and our families lies in frenetic fracking and oil-sodden sand. Yet this promise of jobs, and the projects’ inherent and substantial financial gain for the relative few in control of such endeavours, does not speak to the costs of such jobs – to overall well-being and happiness.
Mark Anielski, an economics professor at the University of Alberta and the author of the Economics of Happiness: Building Genuine Wealth, returned to Salmon Arm recently for his second visit in five years. As an economist, he works with communities, businesses and governments to help them assess, measure and manage their genuine wealth – the things, he explains, that matter most to well-being, to quality of life and to sustainability. He has long talked about the need for countries and communities to have balance sheets, where both assets and liabilities are tallied. Instead, the full picture is rarely considered.
While in Salmon Arm, he spoke about how more places around the world are making well-being central to their goals and plans. In his book, he refers to Bhutan, which has been measuring gross national happiness, not gross national product, since the 1970s. He noted that people have a common yearning for happiness, for complete well-being of body, mind and spirit. He just returned from Tahiti, where that country’s leaders are embracing the concept of building genuine wealth, in order to help inspire youth to dream a new dream for their country. He also recently completed a well-being audit for Leduc, Alberta.
Anielski spoke of his admiration for Robert Kennedy and his critical view of an economic system based on GNP. He quoted Kennedy, who said, “Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play... It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”
Anielski noted that the U.S. debt is now $57 trillion.
“It can’t be repaid through the GDP (gross domestic product). It’s a bizarre system and we created it.”
At this time when British Columbians are being wooed by would-be politicians, he says he would like to know whether candidates have a platform based on an economy of well-being.
Excellent idea. Our system of continued growth with finite resources is definitely not translating into increased well-being for the majority of its citizens.