Just on the very first day of TED an elated Nic Marks of the New Economic Foundation inspires the crowd. He begins his presentation with a wonderful quote from Robert Kennedy's presidential candidature speech in 1968!!:

So if every night the well adored stock market indexes and gross national products on TV say so little about the actual prosperity of our nations, what are we to pay attention to instead? To the Happy Planet Index. It indicates where the happiest people live with the lowest consumption of resources in the world, and it uses these two aspects in relation. Leading the HPI: Costa Rica! And it is not the only Latin American country that ranks a top position in this index. Maybe we should focus more on Brazil and Costa Rica than on the amazing rise of India and China. On the website of the Happy Planet Index, you can explore the index playfully and track the development over decades.