Measuring Happiness

Happiness. What is it? And why does it matter?

"If the government isn't doing everything it can to provide the people with the highest quality of life, it's not doing it's job."

The Global Assembly wants to provide everyone on earth with the best standard of living technologically possible. There's more than enough food, water and space on Earth to give everyone a home and full stomach. We want to create the best government, for the best people. This doesn't mean that we won't mess up- everybody does. But when we do, we want to know so we can fix our mistakes instead of letting them get worse.

For the first time in human history, there will be a constant feedback loop between government and the people. We really care about our citizens' input- so much, in fact, that we want it to inform everything we do. Voting once every four years isn't enough. In most countries, once a bad politician gets in office, they're basically free to do whatever they want and you can't do a thing about it.

We already went over the seven shields we have in place to punish and remove officials who abuse their authority. But even if those do their job in extreme cases, that still doesn't provide the fine-grained data we need to design the best laws for the people.

For this, we will be distributing monthly wellbeing surveys to all citizens to help us understand where we can do better, and how we've failed. Yes, filling out these surveys will be required just like paying your taxes on time- but unlike paying taxes, these surveys have the chance to directly effect government policy. Instead of voting each leap year, you vote every single month by letting us know how we've done and how you're doing.

Everyone's had a bad experience with government employees- at the DMV, at the county courthouse, or even just when you're trying to get a marriage license. Wouldn't it be nice if you actually had a direct input over how much they made? Then, finally, you could say "Hey! I'm paying your salary!" and really mean it.

These surveys matter. They directly determine not just how much government employees take home each month, but how much private shareholders earn too. Because of this, increasing the quality of life for all citizens necessarily becomes a top priority for the public and private sector. 

So how do the surveys work? 

The techniques used in our surveys were pioneered by the tiny mountain kingdom of Bhutan. Thanks to their historically Buddhist outlook, they refuse to define national progress by material wealth alone. Instead of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), they measure GNH (Gross National Happiness), a far more holistic and human statistic. Bhutan's ahead of the curve. They realized what much of the western world has failed to so far- money isn't everything.

You might think that a "happiness survey" would just ask people to rate how happy they are on a 1-10 scale. That might be simple, but it's not very helpful when you're trying to shape government policy.

Bhutan measures 9 domains and 33 indicators which are strongly correlated to subjective quality of life. They only survey a small representative sample of the population, and the form is only offered yearly. That isn't nearly responsive enough for The Global Assembly, which aims to be constantly in-touch and up-to-date with citizen preferences. [Click here to read more about Bhutan's survey].
Unless a question requires a yes or no answer, all questions will ask citizens to rate an experience on a 1-10 scale.

The indicators are as follows:

GNH Domains and Indicators

1. Psychological Well-being (Life satisfaction, Family Life, Positive and Negative Emotions)
2. Physical Health (Healthy Days, Self-reported Health Status, Disability, Mental Health)
3. Time Balance (Work, Sleep)
4. Community Vitality (Social Support, Community Relationships. Crime,
5. Education (Literacy, Knowledge, Education Level, Values)
6. Culture (Language, Artisan Skills, Cultural Participation)
7. Environment (Pollution, Urban Issues, Environmental Issues)
8. Good Governance (Political Participation, Political Freedom, Government Services, Government Performance) 

9. Standard of Living (Household Income, Assets, Housing Quality)

10. Work Life* (Added in the US to include retirement and volunteer work)

From the official site:

"The GNH Index is meant to orient the people and the nation towards happiness, primarily by improving the conditions of not yet-happy people. We can break apart the GNH Index to see where unhappiness is arising from and for whom. For policy action, the GNH Index enables the government and others to increase GNH in two ways. It can either increase percentage of people who are happy or decrease the insufficient conditions of people who are not-yet happy. In the way the GNH Index is constructed, there is a greater incentive for the government and others to decrease the insufficiencies of not-yet-happy people. This can be done by mitigating the many areas of insufficiencies the not-yet-happy face."
Since not every indicator applies to everyone, people are considered "happy" if they achieve sufficiency in 66% of them.

Measuring happiness is important so we keep our promise to the people. For too long, big businesses and governments have been able to push through policies that enrich a few while making the rest of us worse off. Thanks to this survey, that can't happen anymore. And that's the way it should be. We're all living on the same planet, and like a body you can't shoot yourself in the foot without hurting everything else. This survey fosters a sense of interconnectedness and gives big incentives to governments to come up with policies that increase wellbeing because when we do well, everyone does well.

Shareholders add another incentive. Through their investment in governments around the world, they provide market-based signals that help point out the best firms, just like stock prices offer an (imprecise) way to represent consumer confidence in businesses.

How do surveys effect government pay and shareholder dividends?

Gross Happiness is expressed as a decimal number between 0 and 1- 0.68, for example. Zero means that nobody is happy, while 1 means everyone is happy. Understandably, the actual numbers will fall somewhere in the middle. Survey results are taken at the city level, and begin to determine pay at the regional level (local assemblies' benefits vary based on results). Gross Happiness acts as a multiplier on normal pay: If GH is 0.75 and normal pay is $80,000, then the effective pay is $60,000.

The same is true for dividends. If GH is 0.75 and the total surplus for that quarter is $10,000,000, then only $7,500,000 is distributed. The rest of the money in both cases returns to the general fund.

Who creates the surveys? 

Surveys are created and distributed by an independent agency of The Global Assembly to prevent fraud. They are standardized across the globe to provide an objective measurement. The rich data enables to break down happiness among race, gender, age and area lines. By understanding why people are happy and why they aren't, we can design public policies and community projects that remedy the situation.

For More Info

- GNH USA
- OECD Subjective Well Being Guidelines
- Happy Counts