Review: HPI instead of GDP
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 15, 2011
The Happiness Manifesto is written very well. It addresses complex topics, such as sustainable growth and people well-being, in a colloquial way. However, there are two main issues which make me skeptical about the feasibility of government policies based on using the Happy Planet Index (HPI) instead of the well known GDP. The first issue is the assumption that at the bases of human beings there is a positive drive, which is yet to be proven (I would say that facts are substantially suggesting the opposite). The second issue comes from an examination of the 2009 HPI country ranking where, for example, Egypt scores 60.3 and the USA 30.7 (a better score is indicative of a better performance). The poor performance of the USA is due to its unsustainable lifestyle, but how can the recent events in Egypt explain a score of 60.3?