Happiness rate

From time to time different influential international organizations and mass media present rankings of the happiest countries, which are based on a number of indices. For example, in May 2013 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published its annual index of the happiest countries. Australia ranks the first in the Better Life Index. The second and third places are taken by Sweden and Canada, respectively. The experts relied on 11 criteria while they were creating the ranking: the level of incomes, access to education, living conditions, individual safety of people, healthcare, content with life, balance between work and leisure. A similar index was published by the American Forbes magazine.

Last year’s ranking of the world’s happiest countries, according to British New Economics Foundation (NEF), turned out to be no less interesting.

The experts have been working on this index for several years, taking into account the Happy Planet Index. Then, in 2012, Ukraine ranked 100. The best scoring countries were Costa Rica, Vietnam, and Columbia. To calculate the index, the foundation used not the GDP, but subjective content with life, life expectancy, and level of power consumption. The index showed that wellbeing and high level of resource consumption are not always mutually dependent. Interestingly, namely the countries with relatively low level of wellbeing most often lead in this index.

Another index of the happiest countries has recently been published by the United Nations. Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Sweden turned out to be the happiest. Ukraine ranks 87, between Ghana and Latvia. Incidentally, our level of happiness has hardly changed since the first survey, conducted in 2005-07.

Such surveys show that the level of wellbeing is only one of numerous factors that make people feel happy or unhappy. Therefore some experts consider that it is no more appropriate to measure the welfare of the country and the efficiency of its economic policy merely by market indices. One needs to create a new philosophy of society’s existence and, correspondingly, new guidelines for its development. And namely the “happiness index” can be helpful in this.

“From an abstract philosophical notion, happiness turns into a subject guideline of moving humanity from the deadlock of consumption, moving to a new level of development. If Ukraine timely understands the need to move to a new civilization and finds strength to make a civilization leap, it will ensure the happiness of being the citizens of a great country for its descendants.”

According to Iryna Bekeshkina, a sociologist, head of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, for nearly 20 years, since 1994, Ukrainian sociologists have been using a similar index – integral index of social health. It is measured based on 20 shortened and 40 full indices. “Such index of happiness, at least within one country, can measure the progress and regress; moreover, it can show what makes the feeling of happiness increase or fall. If you look at this index from the beginning, since 1994, the material indices in Ukraine have been surely improving, and the level of social state of health is gradually rising as well, although it has not reached the values when half of people are satisfied and the other half – not. Most people in our country are still feeling discontent. Incidentally, we reached such index, 50 to 50, in 2008, before the crisis,” the sociologist says, “As for feeling safe and confident about one’s future and the future of one’s children, 70 percent of population are lacking this, like 20 years ago. This factor is immaterial, yet very important for characterization of society.

As for the numerous surveys of the happiest countries, Bekeshkina notes, everything is relative. “In Europe, the level of happiness, truly, depends, among other things, on the level of financial wellbeing. But other factors have their effect, too, such as feeling protected, healthcare, etc. Countries with strong social policy, above all, the Scandinavian countries, often lead in these rankings. But there are many poor countries whose residents still feel happy. In the Soviet Union you could feel happy very often: getting a lipstick made you happy. Now we are lacking such happiness. At the same time, nobody felt unhappy about not having a car, because only few people had cars. The same situation is in poor countries: when people are generally poor, it does not impress so much as when poverty and wealth are very much polarized,” the expert explains.

Ukraine so far does not belong to poor, but happy countries. For our citizens wellbeing remains the most important factor. “We asked whether Ukrainians feel as Europeans. You don’t need anything to feel as a European, but we have only 35 percent of such people. When we asked, what prevents them from feeling as Europeans, most of them replied: financial welfare. We don’t feel as Europeans because we are poor,” Bekeshkina explained. That is why Ukraine so far does not claim leadership in such rankings of happy countries. However, these “moods of happiness” are important in shaping of economic policy, among other things.

COMMENTARY

“FROM AN ABSTRACT PHILOSOPHICAL NOTION, HAPPINESS HAS TURNED INTO A SUBJECT GUIDELINE OF MOVING HUMANITY FROM THE DEADLOCK OF CONSUMPTION”

Ruslan HARBAR, expert in international relations:

“A seemingly philosophical question of happiness today becomes quite a concrete question of prospects of humanity’s development. Not everyone understands this. The linear development of civilization is coming to an end. For entire history people have been increasing the production levels in order to satisfy the constantly growing needs. And we have started to consume more than the Earth is able to recreate. The entire humanity has found itself on the verge of survival (but an average individual is not aware of this). Such problem, connected with the existence of humankind, is unprecedented. The humanity is facing the need of a leap: transition to a different life philosophy, new criteria of development. The world economic crisis, which started in 2008, was a demonstrative example of this. And it was namely the crisis that highlighted this problem.

“The Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, economist Ben Bernanke stated at a conference in Cambridge in August 2012 that market indices were no more able to fully reflect the efficiency of economic policy. People do not become any happier in the countries where the emphasis is made on the development of production. He used as an example the Kingdom of Bhutan, whose king stated in 1972: ‘The happiness of people is more important than the GDP,’ and introduced the notion of Gross National Happiness, or GNH. Growing of flowers is one of the points of the country’s development program.

“The Happy Planet Index was published in 2006 not accidentally: that was a verge of the millennia. This is a proof that there is some understanding of the need for revolutionary changes in our life views. Polish economist and politician Grzegorz Kolodko offered to evaluate the economic prospects with the help of an integrated index of happiness, where the GDP takes only 40 percent, the rest is health, leisure, and quality of life. The same criteria are mentioned in the report of the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission, founded at the initiative of the then president of France Nicholas Sarkozy. In China, the index of happiness is used with increasing frequency in the reports of the party and state bodies, even in its five-year plans. Ukrainian sociologists have also started to use the notion of the level of happiness. These innovations are quite understandable. For the majority of people wealth is not the ultimate goal. They want to be happy and healthy. The notion of happiness is individual; it is a certain state a person experiences at this moment. It cannot be measured by formulas, but it does exist. Every person will say whether s/he is happy or not. It does not depend on the level of GDP per capita.

“We have recently celebrated the 95th anniversary of Nelson Mandela. He said that to build a nation you need to jump above your head. Building of a nation is our problem, too. What should be the content of this leap? We won’t catch up with G20 countries by level of wealth, no matter what one says about our aircraft-, rocket-, and ship building, and our brains. We have all of this. We won’t become a ‘poor European country.’ But all this is not a fundament for a leap. We need to leave the borders of the traditional market quantity idea of progress and development. We need a revolution of beliefs and high ambitions. Such a leap may consist in moving to a new philosophy of state’s existence – providing conditions for individual happiness. Its main element is health. And life expectancy is its final manifestation. It is impossible to squeeze happiness into some kind of parameters. But life expectancy is a concrete figure, which is understandable for any person, as well as the parameters of factors on which it depends: the quality of water, air, and food. And harmony with nature, as well as careful treatment of nature. Pronouncing of such goal of a state’s existence does not need billions of investments, or ruination of previous achievements. One just needs to switch the accents. We need a political will. We will only need to break the resistance of bureaucracy and corruption.

“From an abstract philosophical notion, happiness turns into a subject guideline of moving humanity from the deadlock of consumption, moving to a new level of development. If Ukraine timely understands the need to move to a new civilization and finds strength to make a civilization leap, it will ensure the happiness of being the citizens of a great country for its descendants.”