The Philippines’ Path to Happiness

The Philippines21 group had dinner the other night with Jamie Metzl, Executive Vice-President of AsiaSociety.

Sandwiched amidst lighter conversation was a topic that landed on the dinner table :

What country’s model of development can the Philippines emulate?

Now, I’m an entrepreneur, not an economist; But I guess my opinionated self can’t help but throw in my own two cents on this personally-fascinating topic.

The angle that really fascinates me, though, goes beyond the “Should the Philippines follow the US, India, Japan, or South Korea model of economic progress?” discussion. Now while I think that topic is a critically important conversation, I think I’ll save my thoughts on that for another blog. (My quick answer: an intersection of India and South Korea.)

For me, the angle I want to explore begins with clarifying the dichotomy between Developed vs. Developing Countries.

A quick search on slideshare gives us a quick resource :

Now, this is far from a technical, scientific explanation of the difference in definitions; But it does give us a flavor of the general bias.

If anything, it reinforces that Development is something that every country must aspire for. It gets populations out of poverty and improves a nation’s way of life.

But while I generally agree that Developed Countries have shown ‘The Way’ for those still ‘Developing’, I for one don’t accept that we have to take their ‘Roadmaps for Development’ lock, stock, and barrel.

Why?

For the simple reason that the end result – their version of development – is not something embraceable in its entirety.

Yes, Developed Countries have the highest GDPs per capita, while Developing Countries have most of its people living under $2 a day.

Yes, Developed Countries have infrastructure. Technology. Military might. And products that Developing Countries want.

But they sure as heck have also tons of baggage that I wouldn’t touch with a country-wide pole : Environmental degradation. Unhappy populaces. Mountains of debt driven by unbridled consumerism.

Corny as it sounds … development … doesn’t always equal … happiness.

Let me be clear : this Developing-Developed dichotomy isn’t a West vs East debate. Even Developed Asian economies experience the same issues. If either China or India mirror US development with its patterns of consumption and addiction to oil, climate change will accelerate at disaster-movie-proportions.

So, for me, the heart of the matter is rethinking a new model of development – one that goes beyond what we have normally laid it out to be.

My book of the moment is The Economics of Happiness : Building Genuine Wealth by Mark Anielski, and it has greatly influenced the thinking I have on the subject.

The book urges its readers to go beyond traditional measures of economic development – e.g. our fixation on GDP – and expand the scope to other measures that would result in Genuine Wealth. Anielski’s philosophy is that Genuine Wealth is based on five capital assets: human (duh, people), social (strength of relationships with each other), natural (gifts from nature e.g. forests, natural gas, mineral resources), built (what we’ve made e.g. equipment, factories, tools), and financial (money!) – and this becomes the foundation for an economic model of well-being and prosperity. Of Happiness.

I know this is mostly touchy-feely, but I think we have to start becoming more comfortable with this new reality. After all, the world that’s emerging is the fuzziest that it’s ever been. The intangibles are seamlessly meshing with the tangibles in entirely new, surprising ways.

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So, going back to the Philippines, and what we can – and should – aspire for from development?

We have to grab the issues of poverty and corruption by the horns, bare minimum. Let’s not even talk about happiness economics if people don’t even get to eat three times a day, brought about by the absolute excess of those in power. The first issue requires traditional economic development that brings financial security to people; The second requires a radical new inculturation and cleansing of government.

But beyond solving the poverty-corruption conundrum, we also have to wrap our heads around the fact that The Filipino Dream shouldn’t just be financial security and purely materialistic pursuits.  Developed economies have shown that this kind of mentality can lead to unbridled consumption, a breakdown in values, and environmental degradation. So as we explore the hard economics, we also have to grapple with the socio-cultural approach. We need to change our thinking, what we measure, and how we go about things.

To end, one of the few silver linings of being a laggard is that you see what has befallen those ahead of you – both the good and the bad. The Philippines can emulate most of what is good from those that have Developed. But we have the singular, prime opportunity to avoid the Bad. Let’s not waste this opportunity.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 12:00 pm and is filed under A Better World, Happynomics, Philippines 2020. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.