Is meten nog wel weten? Commentaar op het meten van ‘Brede welvaart met inbegrip van de SDG’s’

Does measuring still mean knowing? Commentary on measuring ‘Broad Welfare including the SDGs’ The concept of ‘Broad Welfare’, later known as ‘Broad Welfare including the SDGs’, has been given a more or less permanent place on the Dutch government’s policy agenda. It is seen as a good indicator of the state of the country when it comes to welfare in the broadest sense of the word: the well-being of citizens. Through fairly complex calculations, dozens of aspects of our existence are brought into figures, diagrams and cartograms, taking into account more than just economic values. The question, however, is whether all this measuring makes us much wiser, after all, is measuring still knowing? What people want to know is well-being, which cannot be measured in any other way. In this essay the author argues for a simpler way of measuring well-being, which can also easily be carried out by municipalities themselves. This method also forms a good basis for a municipal welfare policy. This can be done by asking citizens to assess their ‘life satisfaction’ and using this data for policy.