Ανάπτυξη, Ανάπτυξη, Ανάπτυξη. Οταν ακουγεται κάτι πολλές φορές είναι σωστό. Είναι όμως;

Should Cyprus instead of concentrating on economic growth to adapt the King of Bhutan index of Gross National Happiness index? Is Government's target the Happiness of the citizens or not?

Here you can fnd what kig of Bhutan is talking about
http://www.ophi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Ura-et-al-Bhutan-Happiness-Chapter.pdf?cda6c1


and Obert Skidelsky questioning growth here http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/economic-equality-and-life-satisfaction-by-robert-skidelsky

The first factor to undermine the pursuit of growth was concern about its sustainability. Can we continue growing at the old rate without endangering our future? As the Stern Review of 2006emphasized, we must sacrifice some growth today to ensure that we do not all fry tomorrow.

A more recent concern focuses on the disappointing results of growth. It is increasingly understood that growth does not necessarily increase our sense of well-being. So why continue to grow? The groundwork for this question was laid some time ago. In 1974, the economist Robert Easterlin published a famous paper, “Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence.” 

Above a rather low level of income (enough to satisfy basic needs), Easterlin found no correlation between happiness and GNP per head. In other words, GNP is a poor measure of life satisfaction.

But another finding has also started to influence the current debate on growth: poor people within a country are less happy than rich people. In other words, above a low level of sufficiency, peoples’ happiness levels are determined much less by their absolute income than by their income relative to some reference group. We constantly compare our lot with that of others, feeling either superior or inferior, whatever our income level; well-being depends more on how the fruits of growth are distributed than on their absolute amount.

Put another way, what matters for life satisfaction is the growth not of mean income but of median income – the income of the typical person. In rich societies over the last three decades, mean incomes have been rising steadily, but typical incomes have been stagnating or even falling. In such cases, it is not more growth that we want, but more equality.