reason for you to change jobs. obtaining broader measures of human welfare is challenging, but not impossible. indeed, the united nations has produced its human development reports for 20 years, and the organisation for economic co - operation and development has been engaged in a comprehensive project to examine the progress of societies in order to ensure that economic policymaking focuses on improving human welfare, broadly construed. 15 but even though gdp or income should not be the only goal of our strivings, we can go one step further and recognize as well that happiness itself, at least to the extent that the term is associated with immediate rather than long - lasting feelings and emotions, should not be our only goal either. remember that i began by distinguishing between happiness and life satisfaction. happiness is just one component of the broader, longer - term concept of life satisfaction, and only one indicator of how the fabric of our lives is being shaped by our choices and circumstances. i am reminded of a story about abraham lincoln. according to the story, lincoln was riding with a friend in a carriage on a rainy evening. as they rode, lincoln told the friend that he believed in what economists would call the utility - maximizing theory of behavior, that people always act so as to maximize their own happiness, and for no other reason. just then, the carriage crossed a bridge, and lincoln saw a pig stuck in the muddy riverbank. telling the carriage driver to stop, lincoln struggled through the rain and mud, picked up the pig, and carried it to safety. when the muddy lincoln returned to the carriage, his friend naturally pointed out that he had just disproved his own hypothesis by putting himself to great trouble and discomfort to save a pig. “ not at all, ” said lincoln. “ what i did is perfectly consistent with my theory. if i hadn ’ t saved that pig, i would have felt terrible. ” the story points out that, sometimes, happiness is nature ’ s way of telling us we are doing the right thing. true. but, by the same token, ephemeral feelings of happiness are not always reliable indicators we are on the right path. ultimately, life satisfaction requires more than just happiness. sometimes, difficult choices can open the doors to future opportunities, and the short - run pain can be worth the long - run gain. just as importantly, life satisfaction requires an ethical framework. everyone needs such a framework. in the short run, it is possible that doing the ethical thing will

term – would have lasting effects on growth, banca d ’ italia the governor ’ s concluding remarks annual report 2023 due to estimated productivity increases of between 3 and 6 percentage points over a decade. 25 the measures i have outlined are not all without a cost, and italy has a high public debt as a result of the imbalances accumulated in the past. at the end of 2023, it amounted to 137 per cent of gdp, which is quite close to the pre - pandemic figure but higher than in the rest of the euro area. this heavy weight forces us to commit considerable public resources to interest payments every year, taking them away from innovation and development. in order to deal with the debt problem, we need a credible plan to boost growth and productivity, and to gradually and steadily improve the public accounts. this plan will need to put the debt - to - gdp ratio on a firm downward trajectory. the more credible the prospects for debt reduction, the lower the returns that investors will demand for holding it : this in turn will make the adjustment less difficult. careful choices are needed, especially on the expenditure side, in order to redirect its composition towards development and to cut out inefficiencies. the fight against tax evasion will have to play its part, following the positive results recorded in this field over the last decade. 26 we will only be able to break free of the debt burden by combining fiscal prudence and growth. the financial system the italian banking system the year 2023 was a very positive one for italian banks. return on equity exceeded 12 per cent. profitability benefited from an exceptional market situation, in which the abundant liquidity in circulation curbed the increase in the cost of funding, while the rise in the key interest rates quickly passed through to lending rates, thereby boosting net interest income. capital rose to 15. 6 per cent of risk - weighted assets. the latest data confirm that this positive phase is still underway. within the italian banking system, the profitability and capital levels of italian significant institutions are above the european average ( figure 6 ). the governor ’ s concluding remarks annual report 2023 banca d ’ italia figure 6 profitability and capitalization of italian and european banks ( annual data ; per cent ) ( a ) profitability ( b ) capital ratio −5 −5 −10 −10 italian significant banks italian less significant banks european significant banks source : based on supervisory reports. ( 1 ) banks based in european banking