Generating Wellbeing

The human body and mind have evolved together to safeguard ourselves and our loved ones. Throughout evolution, we have developed a system of personal drives and rewards that motivate us to engage in behaviours that ensure our safety and, ultimately, our survival.

Our bodies and minds are wired to respond to threats and opportunities in our environment, and we have developed a range of mechanisms to protect ourselves and secure our wellbeing. When we don't feel adequately safe and secure, our bodies and minds drive us to take the necessary steps to obtain what we perceive is lacking.

These drives and rewards have played a critical role in our survival, shaping our behaviours and influencing our decision-making processes. By understanding these mechanisms and how they impact our wellbeing and how society supports the process, we can develop strategies to enhance our safety and security, enabling us to lead more fulfilling and satisfying lives.

Wellbeing Flows

Society's wellbeing output is a function of society's political, economical and social structures, the fairness in its wealth distributed and the maturity of its members' personal wellbeing capacity.

We work collectively in the economy to increase total economic output.

Economic output such as food, health care and entertainment, is shared between members of society, most of whom drive the economy.

The output is consumed individually by members of society. How the output is consumed has a direct bearing on how much wellbeing is experienced.

For example, if someone acquires output in the form of food and fails to eat it before it goes bad, it will not add to their wellbeing. Conversely, people who are well-equipped to manage their personal circumstances are likely to experience greater wellbeing compared to another person with the same share of economic output but who is less adept. This is called the Wellbeing Capacity.

The Wellbeing Economy

Wellbeing economics is defined as the whole societal system that generates wellbeing through cooperative activities. It is distinguished from traditional monetary economics that has a bias towards activities that involve monetary flows, with poor representation of unpaid activities that contribute to prosperity.

The articles below provide insight into what wellbeing is, how it is generated and how it can be measured as the basis for assessing how successfully society achieves its objectives. For clarity, we refer to the wellbeing of an individual, and to the prosperity of a society. In this usage, the prosperity of society represents the aggregate wellbeing of its members.