Maximizing Income, Happiness, Capabilities

The Economist ruminates on the primary goal of policy makers:

[Christmas] makes it a good time to ponder whether maximising income should really be the be-all and end-all of economic policy.

Higher income does correlate with longer life expectancy, better education, and other indicators of quality of life, but everyone---economics experts or not---is dissatisfied by the singular focus on this measure [bold added]:

If income is an imperfect proxy for quality of life, are there any plausible alternatives? In recent years many have instead focused on happiness....[but] happiness is harder to pin down.

Economic philosophers have lately become enamored with the idea of capabilities:

The capability approach purports that freedom to achieve well-being is a matter of what people are able to do and to be, and thus the kind of life they are effectively able to lead. The capability approach is generally conceived as a flexible and multi-purpose framework.

The good society is one in which a woman has the freedom and capability to become a successful CEO or a successful stay-at-home mother. The capability approach does not value one role over another; it does mean that society should value and support both choices. A Christmas-themed illustration:

(Victorian Web illustration)

Someone who chooses to forgo a Christmas dinner with family and friends (as Scrooge does) is better off than someone who does not have any invitations to turn down.

As common sense tells us, it's better to have a choice than none at all.

However, capabilities, much like happiness, may prove to be too complicated to implement as a policy goal. Coming full circle

the capability approach has spawned so many measures, each more complicated than the last, that GDP starts to look appealing again.

Maybe that's all we can reasonably wish for: give us a choice and a chance, and let us figure it out. Merry Christmas!