Seattle Sunny Side Up: Gross National Happiness from Bhutan to Victoria to the Emerald City

What if happiness were the bottom line for our economy and our policies? What would Seattle look like then? How would our schools run? What would be workplace policy? How would the struggle for justice be given a boost? How would businesses be successful? Would we trust our government more? Be healthier? Take better care of the environment?

Michael Pennock of the Vancouver Island Health Authority, an expert in data research from Victoria BC worked with the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan when the Bhutanese decided to make happiness a bottom line. He helped them develop a Happiness Survey they now use to determine policy, including whether to join the WTO (they didn't). Now that survey is being used all over the world.

GNH is a framework for decision making that puts people and planet in the mix with profits. In Brazil it's being applied so far in a university, a municipality and a corporation. How could Gross National Happiness help us here?

Come and join Michael Pennock and City Council President Richard Conlin on Monday, April 19th from 7-9 pm in the Landes Room on the first floor of City Hall, 600 4th Avenue, Seattle.

Learn about the Pennock happiness survey and what happened in Victoria when the city took the survey and created a Happiness Index.. Join with other Seattleites in figuring out how a Gross National Happiness Campaign might work in our city and what's already underway. Hear some happiness stories and learn what international research has to say about what really makes us happy. Become part of the new movement in Seattle that could help your own GPH... gross (overall) personal happiness.