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LETS FOCUS PUBLIC SPENDING ON PROMOTING HAPPINESS
The whole focus of economics should shift towards a science of promoting
well-being and happiness, according to Professor Yew-Kwang Ng of
the Chinese University of Hong Kong, writing in the November issue
of the Economic Journal. Conventional measures of welfare such as
per capita GDP are highly misleading if happiness becomes our objective,
he argues. Indeed, because of environmental disruption and the relative
income effects of the rat race, economic growth may make people
less happy. At that point, increased public spending to safeguard
environmental quality and promote research is more welfare-enhancing
than higher private consumption.
Ng argues that although happiness is more subjective and difficult
to measure and compare, it is more important than income. Happiness
is after all our ultimate objective, he points out. We want money
not for moneys sake but to increase our happiness; we want
happiness for its own sake. And except for in poor countries, higher
incomes do not make people significantly happier.
Once individuals have their basic needs and comforts, their money
is spent on improving their life in relation to others. This competitiveness
causes waste by generating higher levels of production and consumption
than necessary, which in turn increase environmental costs. At the
same time, the benefits of public (relative to private) spending
are underestimated, biasing public spending downwards.
Ngs analysis leads him to some surprising recommendations
on public spending. As an example, he notes that it is has been
known for nearly half a century that the electrical, chemical and
magnetic stimulation of certain parts of our brain induces intense
pleasure and obliterates emotional and physical pain without addiction,
without harmful effects and without imposing burdens on our peripheral
nervous system. Why, Ng asks, havent more resources been used
to perfect this method for widespread use to increase happiness
by quantum leaps and to solve many social problems like mental depression
and drug addiction?!
Note: A Case for Happiness, Cardinalism, and Interpersonal
Comparability by Yew-Kwang Ng is published in the November
1997 issue of the Economic Journal. Ng is in the Economics Department
at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.
For Further information: contact RES/ESRC Media Consultant for
Economics Romesh Vaitilingam on 0171-878-2919, 0117-983-9770 or
mobile 0468-661075; or Yew-Kwang Ng on 00-852-2609-7134 (email:
ykng@cuhk.edu.hk).
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