Professor Xu said: "I personally have my own views on the concept of happiness index, in fact, there are two people in our family and Haodong, and the three of us have three different opinions. Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to clarify the exact meaning of the happiness index, and when examining the happiness index of the people, the most economical and effective method is to let people make a direct evaluation of their subjective happiness status, which may have certain significance for examining the experience of individual happiness, but it is not of much help to reveal the social psychological phenomena of universal significance implicit in the sense of happiness. ”

Why? Because the individual characteristics of happiness experience determine that the happiness of different individuals has different meanings, and the cultural differences of happiness experience determine that the meaning of happiness of groups in different cultural backgrounds is also different. Examining the happiness index under the ambiguous concept of happiness will lose the basis for describing and comparing happiness, and thus lose the operability and practical value of the research. ”

"The general view now is that the study of happiness index should first go beyond the concept of happiness, and from the origin and purpose of the research, the happiness index can be regarded as the core indicator reflecting the subjective quality of life of the people. At the level of subjective quality of life, we have integrated previous studies on well-being and put forward the perspective of experiential well-being. According to this viewpoint, happiness is a positive psychological experience of the individual's own existence and development caused by the combination of people's objective conditions, people's needs and values. ”

"In any case, the happiness index has practical significance, and the key to whether the happiness experience can become a practical policy goal is the extent to which the policy can affect the people's happiness experience. In previous studies on well-being, researchers have proposed a personality determination theory of well-being. According to this theory, people's well-being is more steadily influenced by personality traits. ”

"The past use of GDP as a core indicator of social progress and development as a core indicator of social progress and development is obviously insufficient, and to some extent may lead to the compromise of social policy choices, which is why people have tried to revise or supplement this indicator. The happiness index, which reflects the subjective quality of life of the people, is a highly humanized index, which can make up for the shortcomings of the GDP index and measure the overall progress and development of society. Taking the happiness index as a policy goal is of course of great practical significance. First of all, the happiness index is an important indicator to measure the progress and development of a society. Secondly, the happiness index is an important indicator to monitor the healthy functioning of a society. In addition, the happiness index is an important basis for social policy adjustment. ”

From the current understanding of the happiness index by some people, the happiness index as a policy goal may still have some misunderstandings to a greater or lesser extent, which should be avoided. First, we should avoid treating happiness and GDP as an either/or relationship. Happiness does not exclude GDP outfittingly. Although the proponents of happiness index target GDP when proposing this indicator, it is naïve to think that happiness can completely replace GDP. GDP, especially per capita GDP, despite its many shortcomings, is still considered an important indicator of national economic growth, and is often used as an important indicator of people's objective quality of life. Without the accumulation of wealth and the increase in people's disposable income, there can be no talk of people's happiness. ”

Second, we should avoid simply using the happiness index as a criterion for evaluating cadres' performance. As mentioned above, the happiness index uses a set of indicators to comprehensively reflect the subjective quality of life of the people, and on the whole, it reflects the general psychological experience of the people, so it will inevitably be affected by many factors such as long-term and short-term, macro and micro, the subject's own and external environment. This characteristic of the happiness index determines that it is mainly used to measure and evaluate the progress and development of a specific society and the benign operation of the state. In this regard, the difference between satisfaction and happiness is also reflected. Because satisfaction can be aimed at specific people and things, it is feasible to set up a set of scientific satisfaction index system, and to extract a representative sample of the evaluation subject according to certain principles to evaluate the individual evaluation objects, and in a certain sense, the satisfaction index can also be used as an important basis for cadre performance evaluation. ”

"Also, maximizing happiness should be avoided as a policy option. Maximizing happiness as a policy objective does not mean maximizing happiness as a policy choice. The principle of "the greatest happiness for the greatest number" put forward by modern utilitarianism is nothing more than an abstract ethical proposition, and if it is tried to be a concrete policy pursuit in the sense of economics or political science, it is destined to evolve into a contemporary utopia, and this fate has been confirmed by the efforts of welfare economists. Of course, we do not deny the possibility of maximizing happiness at the individual level. Some people have proposed to build a new discipline of happiness with the aim of helping people find ways to maximize their happiness. There is no doubt that this effort is based on the individual, and its practical value lies mainly in guiding people's life practice. Taking the happiness index as the policy goal is not to pursue the growth of the total happiness of the whole society by adjusting social policies and promoting social progress, but to investigate the situation and change trend of the subjective quality of life of the people through the happiness index, and then adjust the policy orientation and promote the overall progress and benign operation of the society. ”

"At present, the happiness index is mainly divided into three categories: first, the degree of life satisfaction involving cognitive categories, including satisfaction with living conditions, such as employment, income, social security, etc., and satisfaction with quality of life, such as housing status, medical conditions, education status, etc. Second, the mentality and emotional pleasure level involving the emotional category, including the degree of mental tension, mentality, etc. Third, it refers to the harmony between people and between individuals and society. The eleven factors that are currently recognized as influencing happiness are: income, employment, housing, education, environment, sanitation, health, community life, institutional management, safety, work-family relations, and overall satisfaction with living conditions. ”

"However, I personally believe that the above eleven factors are far from enough, and should at least include the price or inflation rate, the degree of social equality, the integrity of the government and the degree of welfare protection, these four factors are also closely related to the happiness index."

At this point, Professor Xu paused.

Chen Yibo said: "Professor Xu, three of the four factors that you personally think are directly related to the government, can you talk about it openly? ”