GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT_ One of the few human events that will bring tears to your eyes is news that the GDP exceeded the best-reported quarterly projections. GDP is the nation’s report card and it grades our productivity. Bask in positive results but never let them lull you into complacency, and watch them closely for warning signs. Complacency is a slippery slope, and a sliding GDP, unchallenged, can accelerate toward recession before you know it. Be ever vigilant. And always react immediately to a slumping GDP. Do your part. Do whatever you must to drive your employees to higher levels of productivity. Use layoffs to get rid of dead wood if you must, and any time GDP slumps for two consecutive quarters, it is mandatory that you rewrite your fundamental business plan.
On the other hand, a glowing GDP should be cause for celebration. Educate consumers to appreciate the deep significance of a winning GDP in their lives. It is not just a number. It is a grade. GDP is a measure of personal worth, the worth of the workers whose effort or lack of effort helped create the number; the worth of consumers whose spending or lack of spending helped create the number; the worth of the nation at large, whose care or lack of caring contributed to the number.
In the same way that a religious person who meets the highest standards of behavior achieves a state of religious grace, good workers and consumers, as well as CEOs, can achieve a state of economic grace. Join together with friends and workers to celebrate the light of a robust and growing GDP confident that you have done all you can to ensure a comfortable future. Like Christians waiting for The Rapture, we are all in this together.
That is, most of us are. In 1972, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, still an adolescent, and the fourth King of Bhutan, slapped the face of the world economy when he proposed that his nation's standard of worth would be known henceforth as, "Gross National Happiness." His idea consisted of four tenets: 1. Development based on equality and sustainability. 2. The preservation and promotion of cultural values. 3. The establishment of good government. And 4. Conservation of the natural environment. What have we here, a Buddhist Shangri-La?
The arrogance of this proposal is as monumental as the Himalayan Mountains on which this tiny, landlocked, and isolated nation rests. The United Nations did not even recognize the sovereignty of this peanut of a country until 1971, and the Chinese even today claim part of it. One might argue that this quaint and backward idea of Gross National Happiness fits a country in which cutting down a tree, any tree, is a crime, and that it is therefore a laughable idea. But I am not laughing. This notion challenges The Grand Economy. It undermines the view of the classical economists that contentment results from consumer spending and acquisition. It belittles the fact that joy can be measured quantitatively and exactly by levels of consumption. Furthermore, this idea did not die stillborn. Its supporters met in Japan in November, 2006. The idea seems to be growing.
I am deeply concerned. Deeply concerned. What would happen to The Grand Economy if everyone thought of happiness as an end in itself, as something reachable by means other than productivity and consumption? All meaningful economic activity could grind to a halt! Not since the rise of Communism has our way of life faced a greater threat. On an ideological level, this assault against the free market system amounts to verbal terrorism, and it could prove as damaging to our economic well being as biological, chemical, or nuclear attack. Clearly, if use of this linguistic weapon of mass destruction is allowed to expand, Bhutan could become a threat to our national security. I believe that economic sanctions combined with decisive military intervention could neutralize this threat. If it grows any stronger, I would urge each of you to call upon the President to seek support among our allies to monitor this thing and to prepare for immediate action before this maverick nation poisons the minds of consumers and workers worldwide. The awful truth is that if we cannot defeat this idea of happiness in Bhutan, we will end up fighting it in the streets of New York, Los Angeles, and Denver.
