STIGLITZ COMMISSION ON THE NRASUREMENT OF SOCIAL PROGRESS

Development means making people happy. United State Declaration of independence clearly mentiom: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as the main purpose of America'independence.

God can give you life and the government can give you liberty, but no one can give you happiness.

Making people happy and satisfied with their lives is a universal goal of human existence. Based on this rational thinking Joseph E Stiglizt, Amartya Sen and Jean Paul Fitossi tried to explore new approach in measuring quality of life.

World actually needs alternative measurement in addition to the existing indicators. The new measurement should emphasis on people on what they value as important. The new measurement should also give emphasis on the recognition of the diversities and inequalities in human conditions.
I would like to outline very briefly one of their focus related to Subjective wellbeing (SWB).
Subjective well-being approach rely on people's owm judgement. There has been some ambiguities and misconceptions especially in the assumption that all dimensions  of subjective well-being can somehow be reduced to a single concept of "happiness".

(Note from sairi:  This is a new perspectives different from what has been mentioned by prof Martin Seligman which implicitly equalize SWB with happiness)

According to the commission, quoted Dinner's clasification, SWB consists of 3 aspects:
1. Life Satisfaction: person's overall judgement about their lives at a particular point in time.
2.The presence of positive feeling or affect characterized by the flow of positive emotion such as feeling of happiness, joy, and/or a sense of vitality and energy.
3. The absence of  negative feeling or affect such as sad, angry, depressed from moment to moment.
Note: people who experience unpleasant feeling or physical pain could still be very satisfied with their lives if they value the contribution that they feel they are making to society is important.
The new approach has also been an inspiration of BPS Statistics Indonesia in establishing Happiness Survey in Indonesia.

Jousairi Hasbullah
JSHcenter. July, 2018.