What exactly is our ultimate economic goal in terms of increasing human happiness and well-being?

Interesting question. Not sure I 100% understand what you are asking but an interesting topic to talk about.

 

Happiness and well-being are two separate, yet intertwined things.

 

Happiness and well-being are subjective and therefore more difficult to nail down statistically than say the economics of a country or business.

 

Well-being has no singular definition but is often defined as health, happiness, and prosperity.

 

A country’s Gross Domestic Product GDP has no correlation to its citizens’ Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH). Take the USA for example. Higher GDP did not result in higher GDH. Again, the difficulty being that Happiness and well-being are subjective and not always related to income and economic growth.

 

I am not sure there is an economic goal in the increasing of human happiness and well-being, however, there might be a few benefits such as less employee absenteeism, improved focus and potentially improved relationships between employees at the office, fewer risks or likelihood of alcoholism and drug addiction, etc. However, there are dozens of other factors that also would have an effect on said benefits outside of happiness.

 

As for individuals in the USA, a study showed that there was a limit to increased income resulting in increased happiness. In fact, it was around $75,000. After which a person whose salary continued to increase did not result in a further increase in happiness. *See, the study by Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being.

 

Hope that answers your question. I would love to hear if you had different thoughts.