Happiness For Greater Lafayette Community Leadership

Happiness Initiatives

A New Economic Paradigm

Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product

Jigme Singye Wangchuk King of Bhutan 1972

Gross National

Happiness

- Material Wellbeing/Standard of Living

- Work

- Time Balance

- Arts & Culture

- Education

- Environment - Governance

- Health

- Community

- Social Support

- Affect (feelings)

- Satisfaction with Life - Psychological Wellbeing

Domain icons by Joumana Medlej at majnouna.com

What…is a happiness measurement?

Can Happiness be Measured?Answer: it already has

…by nation

Can Happiness be Measured?

Answer: YES

OECD’s Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being which documents the validity and the status of happiness measurements.

Why measure happiness?

Gross Domestic ProductGross Domestic Product

What GDP counts:+ goods and services sold + oil spills, natural and manmade

disasters+ illness and death+ divorce+ accidents

What GDP does not count:- time with friends & family- volunteering, participating

in democratic process - gardening, educating

yourself - walking for exercise

the sum of all good and services produced in a year

Does GDP make us happy?

GDP in the US has

more than tripled

since 1950s.

Adjusted per capita

GDP since 1960 has

doubled since 2010

Happiness has remained stagnant and even fallen

Easterlin Paradox40 year study of nations across the globe

Up to a salary of $75K for family of four, long and short term happiness increases a lot with more money

After a salary of $75K, long term happiness increases are marginal or non-existent, short term increases in happiness do occur.

Purpose of government & life

Why measure happiness?

Granularity and defining issues

Capture the unobservable

Perception of hurting or thriving

A “guide societies toward desirable futures” in an experimenting society

Inclusivity – you are the data

UK

UK Office of Statistics

“To those who say this sounds like a distraction from the serious business of government, I say finding out what will improve lives and acting on it is the serious business of government.

"We'll continue to measure gross domestic product. But it is high time we admitted that, taken on its own, GDP is an incomplete way of measuring a country's progress.” – Prime Minister David Cameron

The spread of happiness

Surveyed 165,000 people between April 2011 and March 2012

Where Gross National Happiness Started - Bhutan

Genesis of the Nine Domains of GNH

Subjective and Objective indicators

Equal Weighting of Domains

Bhutan’s GNH report 2010What can Subjective and Objective Indicators tell us?

In the state of Gasa, people perceive themselves to have a similar standard of living to those in Thimphu

while the per capita income is lower.

State of Maryland

USA

Used by policy makers to determine priorities

and see how sustainability and long term prosperity change

over time.

Superseding GDP with Objective indicators

State of Vermont

USA

GPI +

the plus part

Using the GNH Index Survey

Gross National

Happiness

- Material Wellbeing/Standard of Living

- Work

- Time Balance

- Arts & Culture

- Education

- Environment - Governance

- Health

- Community

- Social Support

- Affect (feelings)

- Satisfaction with Life - Psychological Wellbeing

Domain icons by Joumana Medlej at majnouna.com

OutreachAssessing ImpactLeverage Points

Material Well-being/Standard of Living

In general, how much stress do you feel about your personal finances?

Overwhelming stressHigh stress

Moderate stressLow stress

No stress at all

Time Balance

In a typical week, how much of your time are you able to spend doing the kinds of things that you enjoy?

None of my timeNot much of my time

Some of my timeMost of my time

All of my time

Sick Leave Ordinances

City of San Francisco- Ch. 12W of SF Administrative Code in Paid Sick Leave Ordinance includes part time and temp workers

City of Seattle ordinance 123698 – municipal code for paid sick leave and paid safe time

Environment

How satisfied with you are the efforts being made to preserve the natural environment in your neighborhood.

Very dissatisfiedDissatisfied

Neither Satisfied nor DissatisfiedSatisfied

Very Satisfied

Wanted: Five to Seven Planets

If everyone on Earth consumed at the same level of the U.S

.

Bhutan’s Constitution: Preservation of the Natural Environment

60% natural habitat40% development

Bhutan’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Policy of 2010 - encourages the development of an environmentally friendly, sustainable economy

Parking Days

Pop-Up Parks

What you can doTake the GHN Index How Happy Are YOU?

Find out Use the GNH Index for your project, city,

community, campus or company happycounts.org

Questions, comments, requests: info@happycounts.org

EXTRA

My path to…My path to…

cottage

cottage

industry

industry

mommom

mbamba

lawyerlawyer

director of

director of sustainability

sustainability

sustainable

sustainable

seattle

seattle

happiness

happiness alliancealliance

UNUN

Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution national product ... if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.to sell toys to our children.

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the 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 does not include the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our countrynor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that ; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans. why we are proud that we are Americans.

- Robert Kennedy- Robert Kennedy