///After 1971, with the NEP, the GDP of Malaysia began falling behind that of the four Asian tigers Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore). In 2009, while GDP of Malaysia stood at US$8,000, S Korea and Taiwan rose to US$19,000, Hong Kong to $32,000 while Singapore to US$34,000./// – Dr Chen

It may also be argued by a Sinagpore analyst E Yeo that [sic] obsession with GDP growth does not necessarily bring happiness and well-being to its people. In fact, high GDP growth has a propensity to cause inflation, rising cost of living, longer working hours and greater stress level for the working population and does not always lead to wealth creation or distribution to the lower income group. Though Malaysia is still a developing country and has a GDP (PPP) per capita of only $14,215, less than 3 times of Sinagpore’s, the ordinary Malaysian citizen has about the same domestic purchasing power as the Singaporean.

[SLKPWPHUOC]

Well it is hard to say per capita GDP by itself – though conventionally used as a measure of the wealth of the population of a nation – is an entire measure of happiness and well-being of populace. Lack of political freedom, as you mentioned, is certainly one factor but there are other economic indicias per capita GDP has to weigh against such as inflation, cost of living as it affects purchasing power, longer working hours and greater stress level for the working population, not to mention the Lorenz curve of income distribution amongst rich, middle and poor. There we cannot run the same line of argument with high per capita GDP countries like Switzerland, Luxembourg or even Germany because their socio-economic conditions are different from Singapore.(This so called ‘unknown economist’, a Singaporean is particularly aggrieved that though Singapore has high GDP per capita its not having same quality of life as like countries and even more aggrieved that though Malaysia has much lower GDP (PPP) per capita of only $14,215, less than 3 times of Singapore’s, the ordinary Malaysian citizen at least cities like KL, has about the same domestic purchasing power as the Singaporean.

Nowadays there are many checking themselves whether pursuing high momentum growth at all cost ought to be at expense of the quality of life.

It is however agreed that whilst GDP (PPP) per capita is quantifiable/measurable, “quality of life” and “happiness and prosperity” touted is intangible and hardly quantifiable by numeral/objective yardsticks.

In spite of that we have The Sustainable Development Commission in U.K. now advocating ”prosperity without growth” to the government in order to engineer a rethink of its economic policies from one which is mainly econometric to one which is more humanistic. A recent study published by the New Economics Foundation shows that the happiest people on Earth are not from countries with the highest GDP per capital. It names Costa Rica, with a GDP a quarter of the United States, as having the highest Global Happiness Index in the world (whatever that means). Then there is this country called Bhutan that calls itself “a Happy Little Kingdom”. Whilst many countries look at their Gross Domestic Product growth as indicia of wealth happiness and development, Bhutan measures itself by what it calls the gross national happiness (GNH) index that measures quality of life or social progress in more holistic and psychological terms..Like many psychological and social indicators, GNH is somewhat easier to state than to define with mathematical precision. Wonder how they do it.

[equally following my reasoning in #39] one may then ask whether he who lives only for his own or his group/tribe’s interests, without factoring within his idea of happiness, a rudimentary sense of what is fair, just and most important, right in the ‘spirit of live and let live’ for others within the human group, can be trully “happy” – the answer to which, whether yes or no, I guess will depend on his level of intellect.

In my post #30 I was just bringing to attention a certain point of view of a Singaporean analyst that [sic] obsession with GDP growth does not necessarily bring happiness and well-being to its people. Thats it period.

I used the word ‘sic’ in #30 (from the Latin ‘sicut’, meaning ‘just as’), to explain the status of an apparent mistake. Generally, sic means the foregoing mistake (or apparent mistake) was made by the writer/speaker I am quoting.

I am but the messenger of what he said.

So Lim Kam Put, Please explain to me why do you call me repeatedly “half baked” calculated to be offensive.

And in #40 when you said “Half baked, if you think life in Malaysia is more present than Singapore, that is because Malaysia has more resources …” – again you are referring to the world at large (not me)? Lim Kam Put do you have the sincerity/courage to own up what you intended or you want to keep telling grand mother stories here ?

///Either way, that person is half baked. Let me put it this way, that someone has a penchant for diverting the real issue here. His agenda is suspected./// – LimKamPut #4

You are referring to the whole world – those whose views expressed here are half baked, right? Hah ha ha