During the visit of Lothai Tschering, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan, to Germany, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his admiration for the Himalayan Kingdom’s monitoring of the Gross National Happiness index.
This was in line with what the Der Spiegel quoted Schultz as saying that he was very enthusiastic about measuring Germany’s welfare not only in terms of gross domestic product, but other welfare factors in addition to economic power. “Bhutan plays a leading role in measuring well-being and the idea of including the happiness of its citizens is wonderful,” Scholz said at a press conference with Bhutan’s prime minister.
The idea of ”gross national happiness” originated with the then King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in the early 1970s and is based on indicators such as good governance, sustainable socio-economic development, promotion of culture, and environmental protection.
Scholz continued at the press conference: “I think it makes sense to measure our well-being not only by economic indicators, but also include non-material factors,” since environmental indicators are taken into account, and this was agreed in the coalition agreement. implemented by the Minister of Economy from the Green Party, Robert Habek.
Commenting on Schultz’s statements, some social media sites came out with selective remarks that “it looks like the death of the German economy and GDP has become very painful.”
Source: Spiegel
