"'Happiness' - China's New Policy?"

Sydney M. Williams

Thought of the Day

“’Happiness’ – China’s New Policy?”

March 9, 2011

In 1988, Bobby McFerrin recorded the song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” The song became McFerrin’s biggest hit and changed his life. It also became the official campaign song for George H. W. Bush’s presidential bid that year. It now appears to be a theme for China’s 12th five-year plan.

In January, the Communist Party branch in Guangdong Province specified “Happy Guangdong” as one of its goals for the five year period, 2011-2015. The proposal won enthusiastic approval from Beijing and the media. So, when China opened its annual “two sessions” meetings last week, with the Chinese people’s Political Consultative Conference and the National People’s Congress – China’s political advisory board and national legislature – it was unsurprising that promoting “happiness” was at the top of the list of priorities.

The ‘happiness’ that Chinese leaders expect to bestow on their 1.3 billion subjects does not have the same meaning as Thomas Jefferson’s definition when he wrote in the Declaration of Independence that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among those are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness…” While there is debate as to exactly what Jefferson meant, it is generally accepted that his “happiness” stems from the Lockean concept embedded in the natural right of man to be intellectually free.

The Chinese, with Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo safely locked away under home arrest, take a more pragmatic approach towards happiness. To them, happiness is the containment of people in a contented environment, dispelling all notions of protesting the State. It is expected that proposals will include items like:
     • Improving living conditions.
     • Raising the minimum threshold for taxable income by 50% to $450.00 per month.
     • Reducing Inflation.
     • Expanding government-sponsored affordable housing.
     • Reducing the work week to four and a half days.
     • Placing warning labels on cigarettes.

The goal of making happiness a central goal of government policy is not a new concept. In 1972, Bhutan’s King Jigme Wangchuck, with the assistance of Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia, coined the term Gross National Happiness (GNH) to “emphasize the holistic values of economic development policies.” (Cynically, I suspect the concept was a diversionary tactic.) French President Nicholas Sarkozy, in 2009, suggested that happiness, long holidays and a sense of well being should be embraced by the world in a national accounting overhaul. Last year, the U.K., in response by a report from Professor Stiglitz and another Nobel economist, Aamartya Sen of Harvard, plan to implement what they deem the most important elements of the Stiglitz/Sen report: systematically measuring subjective wellbeing and using the data to inform policy choices. Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the 32-member OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development,) recently warned, “economic resources are not all that matters in people’s lives.”

All that may be true, but try telling that to a Chinese farmer earning $125.00 a year. Aspiration is what motivates people – aspiring to be successful in their jobs and their incomes, to be free in their ability to assemble and express themselves. Success in those endeavors will bring happiness.

China deserves enormous credit for the growth their economy has enjoyed over the past 40 years; millions of their people have benefitted magnificently. It is estimated that approximately 400 million people have been catapulted out of desperate poverty into the ranks of the middle class. And, along the way, a small number of Chinese have become very rich. GDP growth, though, has shown a remarkable Madoff-like consistency of eight to ten percent a year. The modernization of cities like Shanghai and Beijing, the only two that I have visited, make ours appear shabby in contrast. But, it is also estimated that close to a third of the population lives in unimaginable poverty. The CIA Fact Book notes that almost 60 million people live on less than $125.00 a year, what some men in New York will pay for a haircut. Twenty-two years ago, an estimated 3000 students were killed in Tiananmen Square, according to the Globe & Mail. One should also not overlook that Mao Zedong, the founder and first leader of the current Communist Party of China, and still revered in the country, allegedly caused the deaths of between 40 and 70 million people – making Hitler and Stalin appear pikers in comparison. The legacy from which leadership in China descends is not one consistent with our notion of “happiness.”

Ultimately wealth spread broadly among a widening middle class in China will create a citizenry aspiring for individual freedoms and for the right to elect their own leaders. It is a transition China has yet to make. Perhaps they will do so peacefully, without disruption. The world certainly hopes so. But it will take a man or a woman of unusual courage, humility and foresight to be willing to relinquish personal power, so that power to the people will become a reality. The Communist Party’s perception of happiness, as welcome as it might be today, will not serve to satisfy the true aspirations of the people tomorrow.