Blue Monday

High debts, high anxiety and highly polarised society are all good reasons to be blue, coupled with high pressure over the UK giving cold weather and Christmas holidays a distant memory remembered only by an expanded waistline. This is the day of year when we are at our lowest ebb.

Today is also the day of publication of ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’ a report by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), commissioned by UK Prime Minister David Cameron. It is expected to refute the results of previous research reported in Green Outcomes in the Real World: Global Forces, Local Circumstances, and Sustainable Solutions:

‘increases in average individual income correlate with measures of quality of life up to an annual income equivalent to $10,000; the relationship no longer applies with increases to income beyond this level. We get richer but we do not get any happier.’

According to the Sunday Times, the team of academics who wrote the IEA report have concluded that ‘there is no evidence’ for a ‘satiation point’ beyond which income is not linked to an increase in happiness. This will be seized upon by those who believe that GDP is the only true measure of progress to justify a narrow focus on economic outcomes in government policy. Where the authors of the report are correct is that attempting to use government policy to control happiness is not likely to succeed but I stand by my assertion that GDP is too limiting:

‘I leave it to others to work out what might be the best parameters, but we can be sure that GDP will be a poor measure of how we are doing when it comes to building a sustainable world. Governments should move away from using growth in GDP as their prime measure of success. GDP is, indeed, likely to continue to grow but it is the wrong measure and the wrong target.’

Imagine that the IEA report writers did their research whilst traveling on the Titanic enjoying good food, good company and the prospect of a safe luxurious journey. Sitting in the Dining room it would be easy to refute ideas that something terrible might be on the way and ignore the safety briefing about muster points and lifeboats. If they had gone up to the bridge and surveyed the ocean, the cold, the icebergs and the speed of the ship, they might have drawn a different conclusion. Looking through the lens of sustainability, taking in a wide range of factors, is like being on the bridge of the Titanic. We need to slow down and ensure that we don’t smash the ecosystem on which we rely to live well; that means reining in consumption and moving away from the uncertain assumption that monetary wealth correlates with happiness.