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ensuring this long and happy life does not cause great<br />
environmental pressures. The so-called developed world<br />
has no business at the top of the HPI, primarily, because<br />
of their large ecological footprint. The NEF’s understanding<br />
is that the environmental price of well-being, in these<br />
states, is very high. Estonia’s position in the HPI ranking<br />
is also nothing to brag about – among the reference states,<br />
we place last.<br />
The Happy Planet Index clearly provides an alternative<br />
view of well-being. On the one hand, it combines<br />
the objective statistical data on people’s self-assessments<br />
(by the way, the HPI’s subjective well-being<br />
indicators are from the Gallup World Poll), while on<br />
the other hand, it includes the “environmental price”<br />
dimension of well-being. The discomfort caused by<br />
this view is probably why the HPI has not achieved a<br />
dominant position in the assessment of international<br />
development.<br />
The photographers of the subjective world have<br />
been joined recently by many exotic approaches – for<br />
example, an attempt to determine the proportion of<br />
flourishing people in the population, and to point out<br />
the “building blocks” of subjective well-being. Renowned<br />
psychologist Martin Seligman is convinced that people<br />
start to “flourish” when all of our lives have sufficient<br />
positive emotions, engagement and meaningfulness,<br />
when interpersonal relations have a positive undertone,<br />
and everyone has the opportunity for self-realisation<br />
(Seligman 2011, 16). Since this is a very subjective and<br />
ambiguous construction, the various forms of “flourishing”<br />
have not yet become rooted in broader international<br />
comparisons of development.<br />
Figure 3.3.2<br />
Assessment of life now, five years ago and five years<br />
hence, in Estonia, and the reference countries.<br />
5 years ago Now 5 years hence<br />
Assesment<br />
Denmark<br />
Netherlands<br />
Switzerland<br />
Austria<br />
Finland<br />
Canada<br />
Israel<br />
Costa Rica<br />
New Zealand<br />
Ireland<br />
Uruguay<br />
Chile<br />
Singapore<br />
Czech Republic<br />
Taiwan<br />
Slovenia<br />
South Korea<br />
Slovakia<br />
Estonia<br />
Hungary<br />
Assesment<br />
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8<br />
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8<br />
Source: Gallup World Poll 2012, average assessment on a<br />
10-step ladder of good life<br />
3.3.2<br />
Changes in the sense of well-being<br />
Besides the assessments of today’s situation, the<br />
dynamics of the sense of well-being are also important<br />
– do people feel that their lives are improving or<br />
worsening? The Gallup World Poll tries to identify the<br />
direction of these trends, by asking the respondents<br />
for an assessment of today’s situation, as well as their<br />
imagined location on the good-bad ladder of life, five<br />
years ago, and five years hence – see Figure 3.3.2. In<br />
most states (including Estonia), people hope that their<br />
lives will improve in the future, although some are<br />
more diffident (e.g. Slovenians and Czechs, or the residents<br />
of Taiwan).<br />
The Eurofound analysis also includes a future<br />
dimension -- the respondents are asked how optimistic<br />
they about their future. (They are asked to respond<br />
to the statement “I am optimistic about the future”<br />
by selecting one of the possible answers: Strongly<br />
disagree, Disagree, Neither agree nor disagree, Agree,<br />
Strongly agree). In Estonian, slightly more than 60% of<br />
the people view their future optimistically, which puts<br />
us in a significantly better position in this international<br />
comparison, than in the comparison based on life satisfaction.<br />
(Figure 3.3.3) The distinctiveness of Estonia’s<br />
position can be explained by the fact that, in many<br />
EU states, people are satisfied with the situation today,<br />
but their expectations for the future are more pessimistic.<br />
The Eurofound researchers find that the rate of<br />
optimism is related primarily to people’s assessment of<br />
whether the state is on the right path of development,<br />
and less on the ability to cope personally (Eurofound,<br />
2012, 31). Estonia’s population seems to confirm this<br />
connection – both our trust in the state authority (see<br />
sub-chapter 2.7), and our rate of optimism, are considerably<br />
above the EU average.<br />
An optimistic attitude toward life is an important<br />
motivating force for forging ahead in life, and for establishing<br />
ambitious goals. Thus, Estonia’s good position on<br />
the optimism scale could, generally, be an encouraging<br />
126<br />
Estonian Human Development Report 2012/2013