Way back in 2006 when the Ford Foundation asked how we were planning on measuring social capital in markets, we answered “happiness.” That’s right, we thought about measuring happiness, and the many ways that people felt when they came to buy, sell or just sit at a market.
Unfortunately, they thought maybe we should find another proxy and so we did (trust). But we never forgot our first love and often longingly think of what could have been.
Just read ANOTHER study on it and now this from Bhutan:
In an interview with Yes! Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley attempts to explain how his country is pursuing the goal of happiness for all:

First, we are promoting sustainable and equitable socioeconomic development which can be measured to a larger extent through conventional metrics.
Second is the conservation of a fragile ecology, [using] indicators of achievement, [such] as the way the green [vegetation] cover in my country has expanded over the last 25 years from below 60 to over 72 percent….
The third strategy is promotion of culture, which includes preservation of the various aspects of our culture that continue to be relevant and supportive of Bhutan’s purpose as a human civilization….
Then there is the fourth strategy—good governance [in the form of democracy]—on which the other three strategies or indicators depend.
And then there are the critics who say the very pursuit of happiness is shallow and contributes to much of the suffering in the world. Guest references books like Bright Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich and Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges, summing up their ideas—maybe over simplistically—as, “Do you think gaping economic inequalities, unjust wars, and ferocious un/underemployment are problems? Don’t worry, be happy.”
So, are there ways to pursue happiness, both as an individual and as a nation? Guest says it may “come back to a formulation that Freud famously (and perhaps apocryphally) proposed a century ago: love and work.” That is, healthy relationships and meaningful work seem to be important factors in measuring happiness

Read more: http://www.utne.com/Spirituality/Bhutan-Gross-National-Happiness-Being-Happy.aspx#ixzz1Cce6jRV9happiness index