The HPI represents the efficiency with which countries convert the earth’s finite resources into well-being experienced by their citizens. HPI = (Life satisfaction x Life expectancy) / (Ecological Footprint + α) x ß Here are some of the scores: Score 1-100 Rank x/178 Vanuatu 68.2 #1 Columbia, Costa Rica 67 #2&3 China 56 #31 Mexico 54.4 #38 India 48.7 #62 UK 40.3 #108 Canada 39.8 #111 USA 28.8 #150 Russia 22.8 #172 Zimbabwe 16.6 #178 http://www.happyplanetindex.org/map.htm “In the Western world, economics is at the heart of our thinking about most issues. When we talk of growth or development, we are typically thinking about the distribution and flow of money. A nation’s progress is also most commonly measured in terms of GDP. GDP was never intended to function as an indicator of well-being. Even the economist Simon Küznets, a central figure in the development of GDP, in 1934 urged the US Congress to remember “The welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income.” Yet, until quite recently, it has routinely been assumed to be a reliable proxy for standard of living. The logic underlying this was that- growth in GDP implies economic activity, which in turn implies that people are spending money and improving their quality of life. But GDP turns out to be a poor indicator of welfare in several key respects. For a start, interpreting it as a standard-of-living measure means assuming that income is strongly correlated with national well-being, such that -all else being equal general well-being will increase as the economy grows. It has been repeatedly proven in recent years that this is simply not true. Undoubtedly, a relationship exists between income and well-being, but after a certain, surprisingly low level of GDP is reached, the strength of this relationship declines markedly.” They conclude that “governments have been concentrating on the wrong indicators for too long. If you have the wrong map, you are unlikely to reach your destination.” Quite interesting I think.
YES WE DID!
Hhhmm interesting, but who would really want to live in Vanuatu, I mean a tropical archipelago, with topless natives and cold beers can’t compare to stressed out careers, congested roads & bloated politicians- #150 is #1 in my eye’s.
The first thing I noticed in China is everyone is smiling all the time. When you cross back over the US border you are at once hit with reverse culture shock…long serious suspicious faces of the Americans. World Smiles Index WSI- The whole formula thing is somewhat humorous…I propose a straight forward common sense quantification method like % smiling people (take a reading in various public places and give extra weighting for smiling while selling trinkets in boiling heat for 20/week, and give extra weighting to those frowning while making six digit doing nothing).
Columbia is No. 2 How much herbicide will the U.S. have to drop on Columbia’s coca plantations in aerial eradication missions to knock them out of the top 10?
“There are three types of lies, lies, damn lies and statistics.”
Florida_Gator Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > “There are three types of lies, lies, damn lies > and statistics.” what makes you think their results are lies? any formula which includes scale of resource use as an input is going to put the US and Western Europe and other developed countries near the bottom. that’s hardly a lie