Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
on economic growth or GDP, but rather on increasing life satisfaction or Gross
national happiness (Wiki). There is no evidence of a marked increase in life
satisfaction in China of the magnitude that might have been expected based on the
fourfold increase in the level of per capita consumption during that period. In its
transition, China has shifted from one of the most egalitarian countries in terms of
distribution of life satisfaction to one of the least egalitarian. Life satisfaction has
declined markedly in the lowest-income and least-educated segments of the
population, while rising somewhat in the upper SES stratum (Easterlin et al.
2012
).
Moreover, the life satisfaction pattern in China fits with the historical context.
The factors shaping life satisfaction in China appear to be essentially the same as
those in the European transition countries—the emergence and rise of substantial
unemployment, dissolution of the social safety net, and growing income inequality.
The failure of China's life satisfaction to increase despite its differing output
experience—a rapid increase versus the collapse and recovery of output in the
European countries—suggests that employment and the social safety net are crit-
ically important factors in determining life satisfaction. One may reasonably ask
how it is possible for life satisfaction not to improve in the face of such a marked
advance in per capita GDP from a very low initial level? In answer, it is pertinent to
note the growing evidence of the importance of relative income comparisons and
rising material aspirations in China, which tend to negate the effect of rising
income. These findings are consistent with the view common in the happiness
literature that the growth in aspirations induced by rising income undercuts the
increase in life satisfaction related to rising income itself (Easterlin et al.
2012
).
Moreover, there is more to life satisfaction than material goods. Other factors
include home life and the need for a secure job to support it, health, friends and
relatives, and the like. It is possible that the lack of a marked uptrend in overall life
satisfaction in China might reflect an adverse impact on life satisfaction of changes
in such factors as these, as has been true of the transition experience of East
Germany, for which data on such circumstances are available (Easterlin
2010
).
The GDP measure registers the spectacular average improvement in material
living conditions, whereas the measure of life satisfaction demonstrates that among
ordinary people, especially the less-educated and lower income segments of the
population, life satisfaction has declined noticeably as material aspirations have
soared and concerns have arisen about such critical matters as finding and holding a
job, securing reliable and affordable health care, and providing for children and the
elderly. Clearly, life satisfaction is the more comprehensive and meaningful indi-
cator of people's life circumstances and well-being (Stiglitz et al.
2008
).
It would be a mistake to conclude from the life satisfaction experience of China,
and the transition countries more generally, that a return to socialism and the gross
inefficiencies of central planning would be beneficial. However, our data suggest an
important policy lesson that jobs and job and income security, together with a social
safety net are of critical importance to life satisfaction. In the last few years, the
government of China has begun serious efforts to repair the social safety net. These
efforts are an encouraging portent for the future life satisfaction of the Chinese pop-
ulation, particularly for the least advantaged segments (Vodopivec and Tong
2008
).
