Well-Being Economics - From Slogan to Discipline?; Comment on "Can a Well-Being Economy Save Us?"

Abstract

This commentary addresses Ronald Labonté's recent editorial, "can a well-being economy save us?" It considers how to assess whether well-being economy policy proposals are likely to achieve real change, or simply represent performative sloganeering. It considers Labonté's discussion of the congruence between the well-being economy and widely held, cross-cultural values. Finally it explores the relationship between "well-being economics" and the key heterodox economic disciplines it has sprung from, especially ecological and feminist economics; and explores the relationship of well-being economics with degrowth and postgrowth economics as policy goals and models, rather than disciplines. Ultimately, a well-being economy can only "save us" if it is fully guided by and constrained within the same hard ecological constraints that must also guide degrowth or post-growth policy prescriptions.