The Times Literary Supplement: Does Economic Growth Make You Happy?

I wanted to write a quick entry about this article because I think it's an interesting topic deserving of some discussion. As someone who is still in the very initial phases of building a career, I often wonder what should be the most important factors in making career decisions: money, passion, societal justice, lifestyle? This article asks the same question but on a larger scale - what are the economic goals that a country should be striving towards? To many people the answer is quite simple; as Americans we are taught that a high GDP is the ultimate goal and that maintaining our status as the world's superpower is our manifest destiny.

Adair Turner, a British politician, counters this notion by arguing against the following 3 fundamentals of western economic policy:

1) Maximize GDP
2) Grow GDP by creating freer markets
3) Increase economic inequality as long as superior growth is achieved

One of his key arguments is that the happiness of a country does not increase with rising GDP above an average per capita income level of between $15,000 and $20,000; however, life satisfaction does decrease with greater social/economic inequality between individuals in a society. He also espouses the Keynsian notion that markets as inherently unstable, and therefore require governmental regulation.

He concludes that perhaps the end goal of a nation should not be to increase GDP at all costs, but to consider that there are other elements of the human society just as or more important than economic growth such as happiness, ethics, and leisure time. A very European thought indeed, but interesting to consider when a society must begin to focus more on sustainability than development, which I believe is the direction America may be taking in the not too distant future.

Does Economic Growth Make You Happy?