Why the prosperity in future isn't about wealth

Metaphysical aspects like social supports, freedoms, and veracity may play a considerable role than money in future prosperity, suggests new research.

The work draws on global prosperity review over the past ten years to project potential levels of world happiness in 2050. According to the research, to enhance people’s prosperity as much as possible in the coming years, policymakers should look beyond confined economic summation and prioritize non-material aspects when making big decisions.

 According to a lead author Christopher Barrington-Leigh, who is an associate professor at the IHSP (Institute for Health and Social Policy) and the School of Environment at McGill University.“Long-term policies that are extra focused on economic growth will have limited effects on well-being,”

Image: Nature Communications

“If human prosperity is the main objective of governments, their resources would be more prudently spent based on what really matters most for human experience.”

The researchers outlined a demographic model that combines two sets of measures:

- Equitable material indicators, including GDP per capita and life expectancy;

- Social indicators, as determined in the annual Gallup World Poll of recent years; these consist of the right to choose what to do with one’s life, recognized levels of government and business corruption, the pervasiveness of donating, and availability of informal social supports.

The global study report shows that, on a scale of zero to 10, on an average respondent rated their own prosperity at 5.24 in 2016.

The researchers used noticed changes in the data from 2005 to 2016 to project master plan for self-reported life interpretation in 2050. The study report shows that future changes in material variables, as the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) projects, are likely to yield prudent betterment in global average life evaluations—a rise of zero to 10 percent above current levels.

By comparison, scenarios based on metaphysical variables show a broad range of possible results, from a 30 percent increase in future global average life evaluations in the most positive scenario to a 35 percent drop in the most negative scenario of social decline. Co-author Eric Galbraith, of the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in Spain, says.“Possible changes in GDP are very unlikely to play a vital role in changes in life self-evaluations within 30 years,” 

The researchers concluded by saying that “Our results show that the greatest benefits to be potentially made over the next decades, as well as the most dangerous pitfalls to be avoided, lie in the domain of social fabric,” 

The research appears in Nature Communications.

Source: McGill University