Sociologists said the happiness barometer appeared to follow in the all-singing, all-dancing tracks of Bhutan's King Jigme Sigme Wangchuk, who is increasingly notching up publicity points for his relatively recent model, which measures Gross National Happiness rather than Gross Domestic Product. The new survey came just hours after Venezuelan economist Frank Bracho declared that trying to measure happiness could actually threaten it, but commentators said the new market focus on the happiness quotient, rather than possessions and wealth, may be a welcome and positive move away naked materialism.
The survey, which uniquely tried to quantify every nation's satisfaction with "the good life", found widespread regional disparities in India's categorization of happy, satisfied and dreadfully dolorous people. Gfk-NOP said the happiness breakdown, country-by-country, across five continents was part of a larger annual study of consumer attitudes, values and behaviours. Wheeler said this was the first time since 1997 that "we have included questions on what makes people happy (and) how happy people deem themselves to be." RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL, Thursday, October 06, 2005 TIMES NEWS NETWORK
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