Before you cheer about this grand, utopian dream all nations should aspire to, understand that the model for their outcomes, Costa Rica, wrote a NEW constitution to achieve the goal of sustainable happiness. Should America do the same? Heck no! But it takes education and vigilance to retain and regain our liberty as promised in our constitution - not substitute "liberty" with "happiness," as it requires the former to have the latter, nor to redefine it as a new social construct, or reduce it to a collective rather than an individual pursuit. The themes of collective, community and global ownership of ideals and policies will be challenged against our traditional rights of individual liberty, ownership of private "property" and self determination (for the individual and for a city or town).
Here is the Infographic link for the Happiness Map. Notice that densily populated urban areas are far less happy than small towns. Scale does matter. But USC readers already know that. http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671961/mapping-happiness-in-american-cities-using-twitter. This reality hardly squares with the push toward greater densities in urban areas does it? And watch for word usage and what commonly understood words and concepts might actually mean here.
These are excerpts from the Huffington Post article: (see above for link)
"A high-level United Nations meeting on happiness has taken place, marking a significant step towards governments placing wellbeing at the heart of economic progress.
The first of its kind, the meeting took place at UN headquarters in New York on 2 April, 2012, and brought together more than 600 participants from government, academia, business, civil society and spiritual and religious groups.
Following the conference, wellbeing is now intended to be at the centre of new sustainable development goals, which are expected to replace the millennium development goals when they expire in 2015.
Policy recommendations from the meeting are now being drawn up, ranging from prioritizing investment in renewable energy, public transport and green spaces; to introducing work sharing schemes that increase leisure time and prevent unemployment; discouraging materialism by banning advertising to children; and creating accounting systems that factor in the value of ‘services’ provided by nature.
The idea of placing wellbeing at the centre of economies will also be carried forward to the Rio+20 sustainable development summit on 20-22 June this year.
“This is not about being anti-growth,” said Williamson, “it's about redefining what we mean by progress. We should be aiming for growth in human happiness. A healthy economy is part of this, but other things are essential too - like vibrant communities and greater equality."
A New Economy
At the UN meeting the prime minister of Bhutan, Jigme Thinley called for a “great transition” to an economy that creates the conditions in which all citizens are able to pursue “the ultimate goal of happiness.”
The president of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla Miranda, a keynote speaker, said that wellbeing includes economic, social, cultural, environmental and spiritual factors, and that it demands a balance between individual and collective interests. UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon cited Costa Rica as an example of holistic development and “a beacon of peace and democracy.”
Awarded first place in the New Economics Foundation’s(1) Happy Planet Index in 2009 and regarded as the ‘greenest’ country in the world, Costa Rica made primary education free and mandatory in 1870 – before the UK or US – and abolished its army in 1948. In 1970 a network of national parks was set up, protecting nearly 30% of its territory and it now aspires to become one of the first carbon neutral countries.
The conference closed with prayers from Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Islamic leaders. The Bhutanese prime minister hoped it marked “the crafting of a new and bright chapter in human history.”
(1) "nef is the UK's leading think tank promoting social, economic and environmental justice. Our purpose is to bring about a Great Transition – to transform the economy so that it works for people and the planet." Description from website. http://www.neweconomics.org/
It is clear from the map that "happiness" has more do to with income levels than anything, including density, a city environment, etc. At the fastcodedesign.com website, you'll note that, for the Chicago map example, the "happiest" people in the City of Chicago are along the lakefront north of The Loop; you'll see the same pattern on the San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley map, where the highest concentrations of red are ALSO the highest density areas of the S.F. Bay Region (e.g., such as Pacific Heights, Russian Hill, the Lake Merritt/downtown part of Oakland, the area around UC Berkeley, etc.
ReplyDeleteMy confidence in your understanding of such things is low, since it appears to be heavily influenced by your "pro-suburb" biases and ideology.
Income definately has a lot to do with happiness! In fact, poverty is a defining reason for unhappiness, while wealth is a factor in happiness up to a point. At some point above midrange, more wealth does not make a person happier. I will try to go back and find the research that gives the breakdown for factors the researchers studied, but the reason I focused on the 'burbs is that I didn't want to get too far afield from the blog's intent of how land use decisions are being made. And I definately have an opinion about that. I do not want to give you or anyone the idea that density is the only factor in the well being of a population, it's just the one I pulled out to make a point. I'll see what I can do to find the sources for my post. And thanks for the opportunity to explain.
DeleteAren't we lucky that our Governor here in Oregon is already focused on happiness and even went to Bhutan to understand it. Kitz got the general idea but may hvae missed what appears to be a driver in happiness - adequate income and less density.
ReplyDeleteThis U.N. interest is not at all surprising with Ban Ki Moon at the helm.
I would add to your list, self determination - the freedom of choice
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