A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

Well Being and Happiness
The New Economic Foundation (NEF) in London worked out the Happy
Planet Index, an approach that can measure how humanity can be happy
while the Earth too remains happy, meaning it is not over-exploited beyond
its regenerative capacity. Rees and Wackermangel had already
worked out in the nineties that the Earth could remain within its regenerative
capacity if each human on the Earth had an ecological footprint of
no more than 1.7 global hectares. Combining this footprint with longevity
and a sense of well being, scientists at the NEF worked out the Happy
Planet Index. On this index, the United States towards the bottom; so do
most of the European countries. On top of the list stands Costa Rica and
island countries of the Pacific like Vanuatu.
The only country in the World that has decided to report its progress
through indicators other than economic, like the GDP and GNP, is the
Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. It has created and measures its progress
through the GNH – the Gross National Happiness index. It is therefore
evident that there are not only visions of a different World being proposed,
like that of Pacha Mama (Bolivia) and Dharti Ma (India), but concrete
‘scientific’ measures of a an alternative kind are being attempted
in order to establish that processes of development based on the common
good of humanity can be crafted.
Creating a measurable ecological footprint and measures like the Happy
Planet Index and Gross National Happiness is also science, just as creating
science and technology for local production is. Therefore choices
of a different science exist, that are linked to well being, happiness, ecological
balance and local production. This should give hope that the common
good of humanity is not merely a utopian vision, but an attainable
objective.
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