GDP or GNH?

This question is basically asking what we deem as measuring a successful life. Do we see economic wealth and continued growth as our life purpose or do we strive for a happy, healthy existence? Most people, when asked, would probably opt for the latter. The problem with this is that it is very subjective - what makes one person happy is not the same for everyone. Whilst some people would see living to 100 as a positive thing, others would view it as negative if you weren't happy with the life you were leading. So how do you quantify this in order to produce a national index?

Many different factors must be taken into account when calculating GNH, with some possibly being allocated more weight than others. Again, this is subjective as to what the creator of the measure deems as more important. The other issue with measuring GNH is that it can vary over very short timescales, so depending on when the meaurements are calculated, different values will be given.

GDP on the other hand is an easily quantifiable measure which everyone can relate to and understand. Whilst it is not necessarily indicative of the wellbeing of the country's population, it is easy to use to compare countries and nations.

Overall, I think a combination of the two should be used, with the potential for GDP to be phased out once the public become more accustomed to GNH. Firstly though, a basic measure of GNH must be decided on as there are many models out there calculating GNH that are using different factors and parameters and thus producing different results. This is possibly easier said than done, due to the subjectiveness of the topic. However, in order to move towards a more sustainable world, we need to start moving away from our dependence on the economy to provide life satisfaction and realise there are other things out there that are more likely to make us happy than money, which measures such as GNH can help to achieve.