Go to your happy place

What would happen if well-being mattered more than GDP? We’re getting a glimpse of the answer with the release of the OECD Better Life Initiative along with the current interest in overall happiness.

Personalization has taken a new turn. The Anholt-Gfk Roper Nation Brands Index, FutureBrand’s Country Brand Index and the East West Global Index all rank countries based on the criteria each company deems most important in terms of nation branding. But, none of them let you make your own index based on criteria that are important to you. Last month, the OECD launched the Your Better Life Initiative, allowing people to look beyond GDP into 11 dimensions: housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, governance, health, life satisfaction, safety, work-life balance. Each person can then give his or her own weight to each dimension. Have a look at their video:

The softer side of countries. Incorporating perks into the workplace is becoming more and more commonplace. Highly mediatised Google is know for inspiring creativity by any means, from massage chairs to free food. It is no wonder that the zeitgeist of country evaluation focuses on the well-being of the people. As mentioned in an extraordinary article in The Atlantic, “The commonly accepted standard of social progress, GDP, is seriously deficient,” said Richard Easterlin, an economics professor at the University of Southern California. “Instead of GDP, measures relating to the multiple dimensions of well-being, not just material gains, should be used in policy decisions and welfare evaluations.”

Happiness is in the eye of the beholder. It seems as though all countries want to put their best foot forward when it comes to being happy. As the Huffington Post reported last week, the Shanghai-based website Shanghaiist revealed a new global happiness index released by North Korea’s Chosun Central Television, which awarded China 100 out of 100 possible points with North Korea reportedly coming in second with 98 points, followed by Cuba, Iran and Venezuela. On the bottom of the index you’ll find South Korea, which scored just 18 points to come in at 152, while the United States—reportedly listed as “the American Empire”—fared even worse at 203 with only three points, as reported by MSNBC. Can we deduce from this index that the key to happiness is a dictatorship?

(Photo: evilcabeza)