by Don Mallet

The little country of Bhutan, nestled between India and China, is the world’s only “democratic monarchy”. This experiment, originated by the current king Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972, means that if the “Gross National Happiness” with the king drops below 50%, the Bhutanese will vote and elect a new king. There has not been a vote yet.

GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS (GNH), also originating in Bhutan, is an attempt to gauge the success of the nation on its intangible and holistic quality of life, rather than on its productivity as measured by its Gross National Product or Gross Domestic Product. It is based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance. This is often discussed in tandem with the Genuine Progress Indicator of the green movement.

The “happiness” factor could be used to gauge such things as citizen reaction to growth, development, and social issues such as crime, immigration, emergency measures and epidemics, and could even offer a new mechanism to evaluate physical and mental health care. If one goes to a hospital or a care home, one’s happiness will influence one’s recovery and general health. The population could decide that “alternate” medicine is less costly, and/or as effective, and therefore makes the user more “happy” within such a system.

Some critics of GNH point to expulsion of the “illegal Nepalese immigrants” as an example of how GNH can be misused. Although this expulsion reduced Bhutan’s wealth by most traditional measures such as GDP, the Bhutan government claims it has not reduced Bhutan’s GNH.

I have asked our local Canadian Tire to think about implementing the Gross National Happiness model in the compilation of their customer service data. The customer could vote on their service, cost, product satisfaction, etc. in a program similar to GNH available at the store or at home and on-line - without a phone call from a representative. In a town like Powell River, which is transitioning from a resource economy to a tourist and retirement destination town, anything to improve user happiness would go a long way to reducing the future health costs to our already stretched and breaking medical system. The Boomers want to be happy! Who will offer it? Who will train the staff to “deliver it”? Who will implement GNH?

Most businesses offer “friendly service” in their PR, but why not ask the user (the customer), and get some hard data? The data can be used to re-train rather than fire certain un-friendly staff who are a liability to the business, or to adjust some company policies. I find for example, that while some service staff use the proper words as trained, the “feeling” is not there, therefore happiness is not created in the customer. Let’s see if the quick-to-react free market (business) sector will jump on this before the socialist (services) sector!

We don’t want pills or rhetoric, or excuses, we just want healthy food, good quality and environmentally friendly products, friendly and prompt service, and to be “happy” with all of the above! That’s not much to ask, is it?
The Boomers will either break every system (which we created) because of our numbers or we will come up with novel solutions. Let’s begin by placing a value on “happiness” and empowering the individual by giving the user of the goods and services a political voice, and not just another poll to be expediently manipulated by every side.