These challenges highlight the need for a more comprehensive approach to prosperity in which one balances individual well-being with the collective good. In response, various initiatives have emerged to redefine how we measure and achieve welfare on a broader scale, integrating social, environmental, and economic dimensions. 4.2 Main Initiatives Towards the Well-being Economy Efforts to establish a well-being economy are not new, with numerous alternatives to GDP emerging over the years. These initiatives reflect an evolving understanding of societal progress, moving beyond traditional economic indicators to incorporate social, environmental, and subjective well-being measures. Initially, individual indicators were developed to assess specific dimensions of well-being, such as living conditions, happiness, or sustainable development. Over time, these efforts grew into comprehensive indexes that integrate multiple indicators into a single, holistic measure. These indexes provide nuanced insights into prosperity, enabling comparisons of broad well-being across regions and time-frames. By shifting focus from narrow economic growth to multifaceted societal progress, these measures highlight the importance of balancing environmental sustainability, economic stability, and social equity (ESB, 2019). Despite the growing emphasis on sustainability and well-being, they often remain peripheral to core economic decision-making. The Dutch government’s continued reliance on GDP as the primary metric for budgetary and policy priorities underscores this challenge. While progress has been made, embedding sustainability and well-being at the heart of economic policy requires a deeper commitment to redefining prosperity. 4.3 Policymakers Impact on Well-being As was seen in the previous section, policymakers in the Netherlands started to understand the importance to create a climate of well-being for all. Since 2018, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) has been publishing the Monitor of the Well-Being economy annually, responding to a request from the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer). This comprehensive dashboard encompasses three primary dimensions: the quality of life (”here and now”), future capital (”later”), and cross-border impacts (”elsewhere”), alongside monitoring the SDGs. The monitor lead to an aggregation of over 430 indicators. Given the dashboard’s extensive nature and wealth of data, a crucial question emerges: how can policymakers effectively distil key insights and actionable policies from such a broad array of indicators? Another concern is the extent to which policymakers will force their perception of well-being on residents. Haybron and Tiberius (2015) warn for a paternalistic approach to well-being as such policies could neglect the individuals’ rights to make their own choices. Especially when we consider that policymakers may not know what is good for the individual. Amartya Sen’s conception of a well-being economy emphasises the importance of individual freedom and capability in defining and achieving well-being within a socially and ecologically just society (Sen, 1999). 19 4.2 Main Initiatives Towards the Well-being Economy
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODY1MjQ=