Happiness index

That technical term first came out from the brilliant economist – Paul Samuelson who laurelled the Economy Nobel Price. In his famous textbook – economic textbook, he gave an equation：the happiness equals consumption divided by desire. At a surface glance, it is more tempting to get to the conclusion mechanically just the same as the Buddhism doctrine that the less you long, the more you will be happy. Notwithstanding, the desire comes from the basic request of live can be abandoned thoroughly. Only people will think about the happiness until they satisfy their survival requirement, the same as the relationship between the structure of architecture and decoration.

However, the happiness index, as the evaluation of harmony social system is introduced into the political purpose. In some sense, it signs the government put the happiness of the public into further consideration of political agenda, and that is a development of the public policy. As an ordinary person, everyone has the right to pursue his own happiness, and the final purpose of great society must be the most of the people feel happiness in greatest extent. Moreover, getting into basic fundamental principles, government serves for the majority not ruling the mass and all it does should accord to most interests of the public. But there are a lot of deficiencies of the action which need to be addresses in order to conform to its original aim.

Firstly, can the happiness be quantifiable? In technical sense, it is one of the subject emotions which can not be directly analyzed in such scientific method of economics. What we can rely on is how much money they spent on the certain items which can sufficiently judge the sense of happiness. Maybe in future, economists would study a more effective and efficient way to quantify the happiness, however at present that is only theory numbers from the most survey. Many factors play an important role of the happiness index, such as culture and basic psychology of comparison with others. For instance, after a person purchases a car, his life becomes more convenient, and then his happiness index might rise. However later for a while, he encounters the unpredictable questions about high maintenance, fuel fee and traffic jam, and on the contrary, his index falls. Different culture also breeds different index. If the culture prefer modesty, the answer might be just so, but the aggression, the answer might be happy.

When coming to the judgment of the political performance of the politics, it evolves the development of other direction. Considering the GDP, once become the estimate of the political achievement, it overwhelm all the other index, such as the education, culture, sanitation, resource, environment even the basic public policy of pension, supported from the whole aspect. Absolutely the leaders eager for the quick success and instant interest and ignore the majority happiness. They probably adopt the policy to forge the dates or invest on immediate interest industries. From long term, they will reduce the happiness index. Inevitably, the happiness index goes to the dissimilation, formation and philistinism. What government should really concern it the living condition and investment environment, social security, health care, education, reduction of the gap between the rich and the poverty and so forth, and find the inadequacy of social economic growing through the index, but not as the purpose. Also they should take every effort to solve such these social problems to raise the sense of happiness of the residents.