Against Happiness: A Critical Appraisal of the Use of Measures of Happiness for Evaluating Progress in Development

Abstract

The idea that measures of happiness, or subjective well-being, should be used as the sole (or dominant) measure of country progress has gained considerable support. This paper traces the origins of the approach in the works of eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century utilitarians, whose thinking ultimately provided the foundations for income as the measure of progress, equating income and utility. In contrast, the recent approach of neo-utilitarians intends to replace income as the objective by measures of happiness derived from surveys. This paper assesses happiness as the objective of development and a measure of progress, contrasting it with human rights and capabilities approaches and the promotion of justice, which each also challenge the income measure. The paper considers problems with the happiness approach arising from difficulties in measurement, people's tendency to adapt to their circumstances, and its inability to capture the well-being of future generations, while also providing a weak basis for distributional judgements. The author argues that human progress involves promoting human fulfilment or flourishing (including meeting agency goals), securing a just distribution, and ensuring that this is sustained over generations. Cross-country surveys of human well-being can go nowhere near to measuring this extensive array of objectives.