economic well-being

It is worth continuing with the measurement of well-being rather than just economic wealth. Stories like the one below put the recession into a different perspective. Lets not forget however (particularly those of us in failing rural places) my old man’s pearl of wisdom – “Money isn’t everything until you haven’t got any!!”

This article tells us: “A new study from the Office for National Statistics – measuring well-being – has found that while Britain’s GDP tumbled in 2009/9 our life satisfaction actually increased. Since then it has slipped back slightly but we are still just as happy as we were before the financial crisis erupted. Explaining the figures statisticians responsible suggested that being employed, rather than salary had the largest impact on people’s wellbeing and despite falling real-terms wages employment has held up remarkably since the beginning of the recession. It also cited other factors – such as health, family relationships and the environment as keeping us reasonably contented even when the financial situation is deteriorating.

The ONS’s Measuring National Wellbeing programme was launched by David Cameron in November 2010 after deciding that the Government needed to be informed not only on economic progress but also on public wellbeing.”