GDP and Happiness

Section2 Group 24 Titah Laksamana, Tim Tian, Robin Ni, Flora Huang, Diana Min

Question 1
Robert Kennedy was right! We really care about GDP, because it: partly measures comprehensive national power, showing how rich and powerful a region or a country is. is a very important indicator of the comprehensive economic development level for a certain region or a country. gives people the minimum standard of living when GDP is in a appropriate level. measures part of the happiness

Question 2
Living Standards Psychologi cal Well being

Education

Community Vitality

Health

GDH
Cultural Diversity

What is GDH/ GNH? It is firstly used by Bhutan Government It has 9 Domains and 33 Categories Each of categories has different weight Used different threshold to measure not yet happy people and happy people

Ecological diversity and resilence

Time use

Good Governance

Question 2
We prefer GDP over GDH because several reasons: GDP is objective measurement, reflecting status quo of national economy. GDH domains and indicators are relatively subjective Difficult to get an accurate quantitative measurement on happiness Government may be able to change GDH result to suits their interest Difficult to assess happiness and progress in other countries

Question 3
Happiness Rank in 2012
1 2

City
Lhasa Taiyuan

GDP(RMB billion)
26 231

3
4 5 6 7 8 9

Hefei
Tianjin Changsha Hohhot Shijiazhuang Jinan Yinchuan

416
1289 640 102 450 350 114

10

Chongqin
Shanghai Beijing Guangzhou

1146
2010 1780 1350

Question 3
High GDP in China is always means: People in high GDP areas or countries often work much harder than in low GDP areas. Human nature is greedy. People feel less happy in advanced area because they know more and then want more. Serious environment pollution. Abandoning sustainable development. Labor intensive industries. Low-end work such as manufacturing companies.

All these will probably reduce peoples sense of happiness! GDP can not measure the quality of life!