Money makes the world go round. Economic concepts play a central role in daily politics. These days the news is all about sovereign debt, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and growth rates. And as neoliberals such as Dutch Prime Minister Rutte say, “the state is not a happiness machine”.

Apparently, happiness only counts on the individual level, something for which the state doesn’t bear any responsibility. In some traditions, however, there is a totally different approach.

In the 1970s, king Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan chose the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) as the core philosophy of his reign. With the happiness of his citizens as his leading concern, he strived to foster sustainable development, maintaining cultural heritage and preserve the beautiful landscape of the Himalaya Kingdom. In Bhutan, happiness is seen as a public good: something that every individual deserves, not something we ought to realize just by ourselves. The guys from Simpleshow wittily illustrate how GNH works in the video below.

But what is happiness? It is different in every society. In November 2007, the Centre for Bhutan Studies, based in the capital Thimpu, conducted an extensive nation-wide survey of happiness. GNH is calculated from nine indicators (such as living standards, time use and psychological well-being) composed of around seventy variables. Basic questions include the time that respondents spend sleeping, the number of traditional crafts they master, and whether they think killing can ever be justified. This national ‘definition’ of happiness reflects the key tenets of the Bhutanese Buddhism that inspired GNH.

GNH poses a challenge to the unstoppable tendency of economists to express value of everything they measure only in terms of money. But as Einstein said: “not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted”. But count on the Bhutanese to count what couldn’t be counted.

As the inspiring talk of Chip Conley makes clear, such intangibles matter to countries and businesses alike. His shocking comparison (at 13:03 minutes of the clip) lists the dreadful things that make up our GDP (nuclear weapons, cigarette advertising) and those that do not (education, wisdom).

Of course the measurement of happiness requires cultural adaptation. It doesn’t really make sense to ask a Dutchman how many traditional Bhutanese sports they play or festivals they attend. Fortunately, in the Netherlands, we have our own ‘professor of happiness’ Ruut Veenhoven at Erasmus University Rotterdam. His comparative research argues that people in colder climates are happier than those sweltering in the heat. Proper heating and clothes provide relief; little can be done against the heat. Veenhoven also directs the World Database of Happiness, which researches happiness in different countries. With all of this knowledge readily available, it’s time to turn our state into a state of happiness.

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