The Economics of Happiness: Building genuine wealth
By Mark Anielski
Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2007
Reviewed by Gerda Kits
As an economics student, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat through lectures beginning: “Assume the goal is to maximize profits…”
Mark Anielski would never begin a lecture like that. In fact, in The Economics of Happiness, he shakes the very foundations of the economic mindset that would assume such a thing. Anielski starts this way: “Let’s talk about the goal.”
The core message of the book is simple: we need to orient our societies and economies around what we truly want. Anielski is convinced that this goes far beyond the material. Our economic systems should help us achieve genuine wealth – good health, meaningful relationships, a clean environment, spirituality, peace, justice, joy.
Orienting our societies around such ideals requires setting concrete goals. Conventional economics uses Gross Domestic Product as the yardstick of economic health. Anielski proposes a completely different measure: the Genuine Wealth Assessment. It begins by considering values and desires to decide what true well-being means. Concrete indicators are developed to track progress and set goals. Using this tool, businesses, communities, and even countries are equipped to pursue whatever they believe makes life truly worth living. Anielski, an economist, consultant, and professor, draws on his own experience and on a wide range of real-life examples to illustrate the process.
The Economics of Happiness includes little discussion of how an economy committed to genuine wealth might actually function. Instead, it focuses on the first step: choosing the direction to go. This means there is little economic jargon or theory in the book; you don’t have to be an economist to read and understand it. As an economics student, I appreciated Anielski’s refreshing and hopeful vision of what economics could be; yet the discussion of values and goals he calls for is one in which everyone can participate.
Anielski’s hopes may be a little too idealistic. It may be true that everyone wants peace, love and harmony – in the abstract. Deciding what that concretely means in real life may not be as easy or conflict-free as he makes it seem.
Nevertheless, it’s a discussion that needs to take place, and reading The Economics of Happiness is a good place to start.
