I heard about Bhutan setting up a thing called Gross National Happiness, in a Stuff You Should Know Podcast. The idea is that instead of Gross Domestic Product (which measures the economic success of a country) we should measure the contentedness of the people. For the official English website of Gross National Happiness click here.Gross National Happiness, if you ask me, would not work in America. Whereas in Bhutan, a country populated almost entirely by Buddhists, the idea that happiness comes from within is acceptable, it is not this way in the States. Therefore, the idea that happiness can be attained independent of economic conditions is not nearly as acceptable in the U.S. as it is in Bhutan.
Essentially, whereas in the U.S. we may believe that happiness can be achieved through some product (a car, a vacation, a shirt etc.) Buddhists (orthodox ones that is) take a vow of poverty. Is this necessarily bad?
Some people may argue that the pursuit of material happiness will lead to an unending cycle of desire without satiation. In Bhutan, however, the Gross National Happiness, if everyone in the country is perfectly happy, can only reach 1 (on a scale of -10 to 10).Is it possible to create a system in which people are actually sustainably happy?
Nice tight focus, Sam. And you present a clear contrast to American culture. Although you generalize about the typical sources of American vs. Bhutan(-ese?) happiness, your analysis reminds us of the mythologies that we all have a tendency to buy into.
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