What’s the best country to live in?

Prevoditelj: Maja Kovacevic Recezent: Petra Lauš

What’s the best country in the world to live in?

Koja je najbolja država za život?

Is it the one with the best food? The longest life expectancy?

Je li to ona s najboljom hranom ili najdužim životnim vijekom?

Ili najboljim vremenskim prilikama?

The best weather?

For the past 70 years, most governments have relied heavily on a single number

Zadnjih 70 godina, većina vlada oslanjala se na jedan broj

to answer that question.

kako bi odgovorila na to pitanje.

This number influences elections, the stock market, and government policy.

Taj broj utječe na izbore, burzu dionica i politiku vlasti.

But it was never intended for its current purpose;

Ali nije bilo zamišljeno da ima današnju svrhu

and some would argue that the world is addicted to making it grow... forever.

i neki tvrde kako je svijet ovisan o njegovu vječnom rastom.

This number is called the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP,

Taj broj se zove bruto domaći proizvod ili BDP,

and it was invented by the economist Simon Kuznets in the 1930s,

i uveo ga je ekonomist Simon Kuznets 1930-ih

to try and gauge the size of an economy in a single, easy to understand number.

u pokušaju da odredi veličinu gospodarstva jednim lako razumljivim brojem.

GDP is the total monetary value of everything a country

BDP je sveukupna monetarna vrijednost svega što država

produces and sells on the market.

proizvede i proda na tržištu.

To this day, GDP per capita,

Do danas se BDP po stanovniku,

which is just the total GDP divided by the number of people living in that country,

što je zapravo samo sveukupni BDP podijeljen s brojem stanovnika države,

is widely seen as a measure of well-being.

uglavnom smatra mjerom blagostanja.

But GDP doesn’t actually say anything direct about well-being,

Ali BDP zapravo ne govori ništa izravno o blagostanju,

because it doesn't take into account what a country produces

zato što ne uzima u obzir što država proizvodi

or who has access to it.

i tko ima pristup istom.

A million dollars of weapons contributes the exact same amount to a country’s GDP

Oružje vrijedno milijun dolara pridonosi BDP-u jednako kao

as a million dollars of vaccines or food.

milijun dolara vrijedna cjepiva ili hrana.

The value society derives from things like public school or firefighters

Vrijednost koju društvo dobiva od primjerice javnih škola ili vatrogasaca

isn’t counted in GDP at all, because those services aren’t sold on the market.

uopće se ne ubraja u BDP zato što se te usluge ne prodaju na tržištu.

And if a country has a lot of wealth,

Ako je država jako bogata,

but most of it is controlled by relatively few people,

a većinu bogatstva kontrolira relativno malo ljudi,

GDP per capita gives a distorted picture of how much money a typical person has.

BDP po stanovniku ne daje stvarnu sliku o tome koliko novca prosječna osoba ima.

Despite all that, for a long time,

Usprkos svemu tome, dugo vremena

higher GDP did correlate closely to a higher quality of life

visoki BDP usko je korelirao s višom kvalitetom života

for people in many countries.

ljudi u mnogo zemalja.

From 1945 to 1970, as GDP doubled, tripled or even quadrupled

Od 1945. do 1970.,

in some western economies,

u nekim zapadnim gospodarstvima,

people’s wages often grew proportionally.

plaće su često rasle proporcionalno.

By the 1980s, this changed.

To se promijenilo 1980-ih.

Countries continued to grow richer,

Države su se nastavile bogatiti,

but wages stopped keeping pace with GDP growth,

ali plaće su prestale pratiti tempo rasta BDP-a,

or in some cases, even declined,

a negdje su se čak i smanjile,

and most of the benefits went to an ever-smaller percentage of the population.

i većina povlastica išla je sve manjem postotku stanovništva.

Still, the idea of capturing a nation’s well-being in a single number

Ipak, ideja o sažimanju blagostanja nacije u jednom broju

had powerful appeal.

bila je izuzetno privlačna.

In 1972, King Jigme Singye Wangchuk of Bhutan

Godine 1972., kralj Butana Jigme Singye Wangchuvk

came up with the idea of Gross National Happiness

došao je na ideju o bruto nacionalnoj sreći

as an alternative to Gross Domestic Product.

kao alternativi bruto domaćem proizvodu.

Gross National Happiness is a metric that factors in matters

Bruto nacionalna sreća je vrijednost koja obuhvaća

like health, education, strong communities, and living standards,

zdravlje, obrazovanje, snagu zajednice i životne standarde

having citizens answer questions like,

te stanovnicima postavlja pitanja poput,

“How happy do you think your family members are at the moment?”

“Što mislite koliko je vaša obitelj trenutno sretna?”

“What is your knowledge of names of plants and wild animals in your area?”

“Koliko znate o imenima biljaka i divljih životinja u vašem okruženju?”

and “What type of day was yesterday?”

i “Kakav dan je bio jučer?”

The United Nations’ Human Development Index is a more widely used metric;

UN-ov indeks ljudskog razvoja vrijednost je koja se češće koristi,

it takes into account health and education,

a obuhvaća zdravlje, obrazovanje

as well as income per capita to estimate overall well-being.

i dohodak po stanovniku kod procjene sveukupnog blagostanja.

Meanwhile, a metric called the Sustainable Development Index

Dok vrijednost pod nazivom “indeks održivog razvoja”

factors in both well-being and the environmental burdens of economic growth,

obuhvaća i blagostanje i opterećenje okoliša izazvano ekonomskim rastom,

again, boiling all this down to a single number.

što se opet svodi na jedan jedini broj.

Though no country has been able to meet

Iako nijedna zemlja nije uspjela

the basic needs of its people while

zadovoljiti osnovne potrebe naroda

also using resources fully sustainably,

i istovremeno održivo koristiti resurse.

Costa Rica currently comes the closest.

Kostarika je tome trenutno najuspješnija.

Over the past few decades,

Zadnjih nekoliko desetljeća,

it’s managed to grow its economy and improve living standards substantially

uspjela je razvijati gospodarstvo i značajno poboljšavati životni standard

without drastically increasing its emissions.

bez drastičnog povećavanja emisija.

Other countries, like Colombia and Jordan,

Druge države, poput Kolumbije i Jordana,

have made notable progress.

također su značajno napredovale.

Costa Rica now has better well-being outcomes like life expectancy

Kostarika sada ima bolje ishode blagostanja, poput životnog vijeka

than some of the world’s richest countries.

nego neke od najbogatijih država na svijetu.

Ultimately, there are limits to any approach that boils

Konačno, postoje ograničenja u svakom pristupu koji svodi

the quality of life in a country down to a single number.

kvalitetu života u državi na jedan broj.

Increasingly, experts favor a dashboard approach that lays out all the factors

Stručnjaci sve više preferiraju prikaze iz kojih se vide svi čimbenici

a single number obscures.

koje skriva jedan broj.

This approach makes even more sense given that people have different priorities,

Takav pristup ima još više smisla jer ljudi imaju različite prioritete.

and the answer to which country is best to live in

Odgovor na pitanje o najboljoj državi za život

depends on who’s asking the question.

ovisi o tome tko to pitanje postavlja.

So what if that were you designing your countries well-being metric?

Kako biste vi osmislili mjerilo blagostanja vaše države?

What do you value, and what would you measure?

Što smatrate vrijednim i što biste mjerili?