GNH

Recently, I came across a news article on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), one of the primary economic indicators of a country’s health. Further online research on GDP led me to Robert F. Kennedy’s March 18, 1968 speech at the University of Kansas. Here’s an excerpt from his speech:

….  But even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task, it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction - purpose and dignity - that afflicts us all. 

Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. 

It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. 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 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 nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. …..

(The above text is from the speech transcript available at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum website.)

So, what should we actually measure? While GDP is definitely important for a country, alongside they can measure GNH. The fourth King of the beautiful kingdom of Bhutan coined this term, which expands as Gross National Happiness.

GNH as a concept implies that sustainable development should take a holistic approach towards notions of progress and give equal importance to non-economic aspects of well being.

I guess this metric can also be used in families, local communities, teams in workplace, etc. We can customize this index and measure – how often we laugh, how often we listen carefully, how often we mind our own work, how often we have genuine conversations with people, how often we enjoy our food, etc.?

Maybe any such measures will be rife with tales, stories, anecdotes and estimates. But, at least, we can take note of those moments that make life worthwhile and our living more natural.