They found wealth, but still searching for happiness
Al-Risala (English), August 1985, p. 20
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is named as the default author of the periodical; a piece that carries another writer’s byline is credited to that writer.
They found wealth, but still searching for happiness
1985 8 August 20 They found wealth, but still searching for happiness (153) Since the Second World War, Japan has acquired the second largest gross national product in the world. But as a private economic policy group reported in late 1984, material wealth has caused an erosion of Japan’s resources of spiritual affluence. So concerned has the government become with the spiritual satisfaction of its citizens that it is considering setting up a special department to monitor the happiness of the Japanese people. Under the plan civil servants would compile a Net National Satisfaction Index, balancing miserable Japanese against cheerful ones and hoping that the latter come out on top. Discovering exactly what the Japanese have got is another aim of the NNSI plan – the index would publish statistics on foreign holidays, health, unemployment and other social trends. A final equation would mix the people’s attitudes with their state of health and wealth and produce an official “national happiness level.”
(The Guardian Weekly, October 14, 1984)
