UK LESS HAPPY THAN BURMA?
If we believe a new “survey” then British people are less satisfied with life than many in poorer countries and use too many of the earth’s resources, according to a poll that ranks Britain 74th in the world below Georgia and Burma.
Rather than measure Gross Domestic Product or GDP, the Happy Planet Index or HPI measures life expectancy, happiness and the environmental impact of different nations. The top ten countries are not the richest nations but middle income countries in Latin America, Asia or the Carribbean where there is a high level of life satisfaction and low carbon footprint.
Listen, after eleven years of Hard Labour, is it any wonder Brits are so fed up? If Burma had Gordon Brown instead of the Generals, they would soon get the blues!
If you will excuse the linkspamming, I wrote about this idiotic piece of ‘research’ in its 2006 incarnation, and it bases the ‘index’ on this:
HPI = Life satisfaction x Life expectancy
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Ecological Footprint
Nonsense on stilts, with clown boots and a fright wig….
while it is a good idea to balance ecological impact with prosperity, I don’t think the methodology works at all with this index
Colombia has a high score but is also known for rather more death squads than the UK. Likewise Saudi Arabia has rock bottom human rights and as the worlds number oil producer is far from green.