Measuring wellbeing in the UK... (From Bucks Free Press)

If you’re happy and you know it…

10:50am Monday 31st January 2011

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It will be on the next census apparently – a set of questions on national wellbeing. Frankly I don’t call this data.

Number of people in your household, income, qualifications, children age… yes I can see why the powers-that-be want/need to know.

It’s no longer about unemployment figures or GDP or debt. Now it’s about the nation’s wellbeing.

We’ll measure our psychological and social wellbeing. Pah! The vast majority of us don’t know anything about our own psychology. How are we going to comment on it?

I’m dubious about how it will be done and what the result might mean.

What will they do if they discover we are all dreadfully unhappy? That we have no job satisfaction, unstable relationships, can’t cope with our neighbours and feel hopeless about our communities?

Do they feel powerful enough to do something about it? Or will it only mean they’ll try and provide more of us with internet access and home PCs – there, sorted!

And why must we be happy anyway? Why can’t we just plod on in life complaining and struggling, feeling we’re not quite there yet and would like to be earning just a little more than we are?

Do we even know when we are happy? I bet you most of us don’t. Would a sense of contentment kill off our striving to be happy/better off/better qualified?

According to data already collected, the UK comes somewhere in the middle with Denmark coming top of the ‘combined wellbeing index’ and Ukraine coming bottom.

These indices are grouped helpfully into three categories: ‘overall social wellbeing’, ‘overall personal wellbeing’ and ‘work’.

What about our relationships with our parents, our children, the opportunities we feel are open to us, whether we can afford the heating and food we need. Maybe they come under one of the given headings.

And can such a nebulous thing as a feeling be measured in numbers (1-5)? It’s so very problematic.

I need a range of 1-500,000 with numbers up to five decimals places. And I’d need words and colours and shapes. And even sounds… A proper psychological test. But no, we’re to self-assess. A population of largely psychologically illiterate beings.

The truth is we don’t blasted know when we’re happy. In my mind, we only know when we were happy with hindsight. We look back and know that was a happy time. I’m trying hard to recognise when those elements reappear in my life and realise that I am now happy.

Aren’t we always going to say we’re not happy enough, that our social/personal/work needs aren’t being met? Because having everything we want/need never happens.

We always want a better job, more money, more time off, a nicer house, new ideas to cook the family, cheaper car insurance and tax, the perfect pair of high heels.

Heaven help us if in ten years even this data isn’t enough and we’re asked to tell the ONS what will make us happy!

And besides it’s a very delicate thing to measure. Cultural and personal traits will influence us.

I naturally complain a lot and am not satisfied with most things; it doesn’t mean they’re no good or that my life needs improving, just that I’m hard to please. None of the customer care surveys I bother to fill in from John Lewis to British Gas ever gets a full rating on any point., That’s how bad I am.

Some 18 year old who’s just been bought a car might rate everything with a 10 because … well… they’re very pleased with their car. My wants will be different from his. But all our want and greed and relief and the huge influence of upbringing goes in the pot. And the ONS will make its conclusions about us and the state of the country.

We drink and smoke, youngsters get pregnant and some are obese; children (those of wealthy families too) are neglected and at the mercy of parents who are themselves in need of help. On it goes.

So are these people going to say, ‘I’m unhappy because I’m addicted to drink. I’m an alcoholic because I was abused as a child’ or ‘I’m unhappy because I got pregnant at 16 because I wanted to show my indifferent parents what mistakes they’d made with me.’ Or, ‘I shot that kid because I feel powerless in society.’ I don’t think so.

My own states of happiness have had little to do with outside circumstances. I was in one of my happiest phase living in Mallorca with my son. A single parent with no job, no friends yet and money fast running out. Why was that? Let the clever chaps in government answer it.

I suppose as with the traditional census itself it will give a snapshot of the country on that day – what use that is to anyone I don’t know.

When I take holiday snaps, they’re often ruined by some other person ambling about in shorts just behind what I’m photographing or a cloud will appear in a cloudless sky. Everything looks different and I almost don’t recognise the scene. (My photography skills have nothing to do with it I can assure you…) It’s not an accurate picture of what was actually there. But it’s a record of some sorts I suppose.

And I suppose it gives the government a chance to distract us from the horrific financial trauma we face and talk about something else while they siphon our money away.

I can hear upbeat Mr. Cameron now:

“We know you’re unhappy and we want to do something about that. No other government has ever tackled joy, put happiness on the agenda. Let’s make this not just a Great Britain but a Happy Britain…” (Cringe…)

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