Buying Happiness

“While taking a more relaxed attitude towards the pursuit of wealth may make sense as a personal philosophy, it is an uncertain guide to public policy,” says the Financial Times. More and more economists in the West are seeking to recalibrate capitalism. Many, including Joseph Stieglitz, no longer see GDP as an absolute standard of progress and call for the inclusion of health, family life and environmental quality in an evaluation of progress. Gideon Rachman at the Financial Times, however, says that while middle class Westerners find this viewpoint appealing, there is still absolute poverty that the pursuit of raw economic growth is best suited to mollify.