Wellbeing goes beyond GDP

Are we truly happy with our rat-race lifestyles or are we fast turning us into a neurotic, angry, stressful, frustrated and soulless nation? We need to put the well-being of each human person at the centre of our policies and decisions.

Credit: Shutterstock

The gross domestic product is the widely used metric to gauge the economic progress of a nation. For decades, governments applied the GDP benchmark to measure the well-being of their country.

The rationale behind this economic yardstick is that a strong GDP equates to a healthy economy. In return, affluent growth will usher a higher level of standard of living.

However, this narrow interpretation is, sadly, leading to a situation where other fundamental factors contributing to the holistic well-being and development of citizens get disregarded.

While I have no qualms acknowledging the value and necessity of money and nor do I underestimate the relevance of the GDP metric, we need to look beyond this.

Experience accentuates that, although money makes the world go round, it has its limitations. Although we live in a materialistic society that prostrates itself before a golden calf, and in which everything has a price tag, there are a number of life issues which are incalculable.

For example, one can buy a large house but not a home. One can procure sex but not love. One can secure power but not respect. One can attain popularity but not happiness.

Consequently, if we truly want to gauge the well-being of a nation we must go beyond the GDP mindset and include other measures, such as what the OECD is proposing.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is an international organisation that works to shape policies that foster prosperity, equality and integral well-being for all. It proposes the Better Life Index as a more inclusive metric.

Going ‘beyond the growth’ rationale, the BLI highlights 11 areas of socio-economic pointers. These are: housing conditions and spending, household income, job security and satisfaction, quality of communal support, education advancement, the state of the environment, governance and rule of law, health issues, life satisfaction, security and work-life balance.

In my humble opinion, these indicators serve to give a more holistic appraisal of a nation, in which citizens are not a commodity.

Coming over to our turf, Malta has experienced a strong economic performance prompted by a number of key economic sectors. Although many are the variables leading to such growth, surely the current Labour government economic model of profit at all costs contributed to this.

Although, from a GDP perspective, Malta’s economy is a success story and a number of Maltese are surely making hay while the sun shines, may I dare ask: At what price? At the determinant of what? And for how much longer?

Although we might have a strong GDP, in reality, and after taking into consideration the 11 indicators as proposed by the OECD’s framework, have we really improved our standard of living?

The stark truth is that, although we are now more sophisticated, finicky and wearing branded attire, this does not imply that we are better persons nor that our nation is better off.

Are we truly happy with our rat-race lifestyles and quality of our relationships? While recording an economic growth, are we facing a national meltdown? Has our economic surplus paved the way to an ethical predicament? With all our investments, has the state of our environment improved? Are our buildings more aesthetically pleasing? Has our affluence turned us into arrogant and uncompassionate people towards others who might be different from us?

In short, are we victims of our own success?

The stark truth is that a strong showing of our GDP does not automatically translate into a healthy nation.

The rampant overdevelopment, which has turned this island into one dirty construction site, the feeling of suffocation thanks to overpopulation, the daily traffic congestion, the systematic institutionalised corruption and skulduggery are fast turning us into a neurotic, angry, stressful, frustrated and soulless nation.

Maybe this is the reason why so many of our young people are packing up, not to return.

Although the situation is disheartening, there is hope. We must undergo a radical shift of mentality to rediscover that what truly matters in life is invisible to the eye. Economic progress is only a means, not an end in itself. We need to put the well-being of each human person at the centre of our political policies and decisions.

While progress and profit are to be welcomed, nurtured and encouraged, these ought to come in conjunction with a wider value framework.

We must rethink our current economic model and mindset.

As the saying goes, “not by bread only doth man live”.

(This article was published on Times of Malta – 30 January, 2024)