In pursuit of a higher quality of life 

ACCORDING to Singapore’s new Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and findings from the Forward Singapore public engagement, the modern Singapore Dream has moved beyond material success to seeking fulfilment, meaning and purpose in our actions.

It has been well-established that using gross domestic product, which values goods and services produced in an economy, as a metric to measure quality of life is woefully inadequate. While economic growth is a prerequisite to enjoying a higher quality of life, it is by no means the be-all and end-all in determining a nation’s well-being over time.

Identifying and understanding the non-market or intangible indicators that constitute an acceptable quality of life to the populace has numerous policy applications. These include deriving the optimal population size – an estimate that does not factor only into considerations around maximising economic growth but also for other non-material factors such as having enough green spaces.