Frenching

French president Nicolas Sarkozy had announced a revolutionary plan to include joy and well-being of his people as 2 of the key indicators of growth, in addition to traditional yardsticks like GDP. Together with Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz (2001, economics) and Armatya Sen (1998, economics), Sarkozy proposed that statistics on work-life balance, recycling, household chores and even levels of traffic congestion be taken into consideration when assessing the new indicators of growth.

France is the first amongst the developed world to adopt such a policy of economic measurement. Currently, only the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan puts happiness and well-being at the heart of the government’s policy. In Bhutan, before any major fiscal or economic policies are implemented, the government must convene to evaluate how such new proposals will impact the country’s “Gross National Happiness” (I am not joking; this is an official statistic in this little enlightened nation). Sarkozy is going to present his plan in the next United Nations meeting.

Naturally, I started to compare France to Singapore upon hearing this piece of news. France’s official working week is 35 hours long and that is strictly enforced through the French employment law. Singapore’s working week is 45 hours or more with little or no avenue for recourse. Yet it is the French who are proposing to put more emphasis on the quality of life. The irony of it all makes me cringe. However I do think this is a very enlightened move by the sometimes controversial French president and the rest of the world’s leaders should take heed in this matter. Singapore, like many other countries, employs the increasingly irrelevant statistic of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the main measurement of progress. I am not talking simply about economic progress as many governments, including ours, have irrationally extended GDP improvement to imply overall improvement in the lives of its citizens. There has long been other statistics like the GINI index proposed to complement GDP figure but thus far, none of the leaders are listening. I suspect none of the leaders wanted to start appearing inept if they are re-evaluated on a more comprehensive basis. Most of them had gotten straight A’s for their governance through the GDP measurement and subsequently reaping the rewards of it. No one is about to give that up and stop the party.

Singapore, to me, is more of a corporation then a democracy. Like any big corporation, Singapore naturally seeks the simplest and most efficient way to move forward. More sophisticated and intricate mechanisms are often discarded in favor of simple, direct methods which the leaders (in their ivory towers) can quickly see and easily understand. However, a country should not be run like a profit-seeking machine. Its people should never be treated like mere employees, much less a good or commodity, like instruments the company uses to realize its profit ambitions before discarding after use. In a true democracy, which many of today’s countries profess to be, the power of the people, instead of the government, should be absolute. The people will in turn exercise and express that power through the democratic processes of elections and protests. The resources of a nation should naturally be employed in benefit of its citizens instead of being locked up in chains behind opaque governmental institutions where it makes little or no difference to the everyday man. In Singapore and many other countries, how many people will say that true democracy exists or that government policies are driven primarily for the benefit of the common people, rather than the leaders?

The French invented many wonderful things. Amongst many things, they gave the world the croissant, the 2-piece bikini, the modern cinematography and the french kiss. President Sarkozy’s proposal may turn out to be the next gem. I am not sure if the French president’s commitment to improving the quality of life of his people can help bring about a fundamental shift from the failings of today’s “GDP-centric” governments. But anyhow, I would like to say a big “Merci” to Monsieur Sarkozy for at least trying to make a difference.