Rethinking

On Oct 13, the WSJ ran a story titled "In Bhutan, Happiness is King ... Society Values Well-Being Over GDP -- and Economists Take Note" (the link would only be useful to subscribers). An accompanying table,"How You Doing? ... Some Researchers are rethinking the value of measuring material wealth without regard to a broader notion of fulfillment. Below, well-being rankings, based on combined 'happiness' and 'life satisfaction' scores:"

1. Puerto Rico 4.69
2. Mexico 4.38
3. Denmark 4.24
4. Colombia 4.18
5. Ireland 4.16
6. Iceland 4.15
7. N. Ireland 4.01
8. Switzerland 3.88
9. Netherlands 3.86
10. Canada 3.86
15. U.S. 3.50
.
.
.
72. Albania -0.86
73. Bulgaria -0.87
74. Belarus -0.92
75. Georgia -1.11
76. Romania -1.30
77. Moldova -1.63
78. Russia -1.75
79. Armenia -1.80
80. Ukraine -1.81
81. Zimbabwe -1.88

The source given is the World Values Survey but I could not find this list at their website, altough the questionnaire is available.

Those of us afflicted with revealed preference thinking might reflect on the fact that, in just the last few years, 3.5% of Puerto Rico's population decamped from #1 to #15 (refers to net outmigration).

Perhaps the researchers who are busy "rethinking" all the balderdash re national wealth might say that it's always the wiser ones who stay where they are. And they hang on to a good thing, keeping it a secret about how good life is -- except perhaps when the rethinkers come around with their surveys.