Need to work at GWB index
The British government, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, decided to measure UK’s ‘general well being,’ as there is ‘more to life than money.’
MPs in the UK appreciated the move, saying public happiness and well being are major and legitimate goals for the government and GDP should be associated with GWB (General Well Being) while considering future policies.
The move has been followed by many other countries like USA, France and Canada after economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen won Nobel prizes for their work on this issue.
In UK, the focus will be more on regularly measuring the well being of the public by the Office of the National Statistics which will be checking attitude, satisfaction, public spending on services like health and education and the levels of transparency etc.
Many studies showed that the best policy is the one that produces greatest happiness for all people living in that country, and happiness should be one of the factors while studying the progress of any society besides GDP numbers and the living standards.
In Kuwait and in most countries in the Gulf which are financially stable, we need similar measures, because locals leave the country in large numbers whenever there is a holiday. This is because there is not much to do in the field of recreation and entertainment, and sometimes people leave for other reasons like health, education and so on. Those are important signs however, which mean that people are going elsewhere to seek happiness and satisfaction. Hence, we need to give considerable attention to this fact, especially in the development plan which will reflect the future of Kuwait until 2035. We need to work hard in the next two decades to have a happier Kuwait.
Email: labeed.abdal@gmail.com
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By: Labeed Abdal - Attorney at Law
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/NewsDetails/tabid/96/smid/414/ArticleID/163192/reftab/73/t/How-happy-can-Kuwait-be/Default.aspx
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