As I’ve mentioned in “How to Live Well After the Digital Revolution“, happiness should be our true ethical compass.  Given how much time we spend at work and how closely our lives are tied into the economics of this country, and the world, shouldn’t our financial policy represent this?
Ecological economist Dave Batker, whom I recently heard interviewed by Faith Middleton, proposes we drop GDP as a measure of our national success in favor of quality of life indexes.  Infinite economic expansion and the reliance on consumer culture is not a sustainable model for financial stability according to Batker, and it really doesn’t help us live better lives either.
Here’s an excerpt from his film What’s the Economy for, Anyway?  (You can actually watch it all on YouTube.) Take a look to see how some of the ideas I propose can be integrated into our society in a way that suits our modern sensibilities.

Remember that the economy should work for us; we should not work for it at the expense of living well.