This week the New Economics Foundation published its Happy Planet Index of countries worldwide. They note that "the index combines environmental impact with human well-being to measure the environmental efficiency with which, country by country, people live long and happy lives." Like many such analyses from the environmental left, it glorifies poverty and repression.

The Index combines "Life Satisfaction," life expectancy and "Ecological Footprint."

The Index rates Costa Rica as the #1 country in its list. The US comes in at 114. Additionally, the following countries rank ahead of the US (I've also added the country's political rights as rated by Freedom House - 1 - full rights, 7 - no rights)

• Vietnam, 5th - 7
• Cuba, 7th - 7
• Bhutan, 17th - 6 (32 percent below poverty line)
• Laos, 19th - 7
• Mexico, 23rd - 2
• Pakistan, 24th - 6
• Bangladesh, 31st - 5 (42 percent below poverty line)
• Tajikistan, 34th - 6
• Venezuela, 36th - 4
• Syria, 38th - 7
• Burma, 39th - 7
• Haiti, 42nd - 4 (Poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, 80 percent below poverty line)
• Uzbekistan, 45th - 7
• Yemen, 50th - 5
• Palestine, 56th - 5
• Iran, 90th - 6 (The 2009 ranking is due out soon, and we can reasonably expect a 7)
• Belarus, 104th - 7
• Malawi, 107th - 4 ($800 annual average income, 53 percent below poverty line)
• Chad, 109th - 7 ($1,600 annual average income, 80 percent below poverty line)
• Lebanon, 110th - 5
• Congo, 112th - 6
• United States, 114th - 1

The results mirror other studies showing that some believe that greenness requires poverty. Sadly, such poverty is seen too often as "quaint" by wealthy Western environmentalists. As filmmaker Phelim McAleer says "quaint may be the most evil word in the English language."

These results are not surprising since they are based on the work of Herman Daly of the University of Maryland. In his 1996 book Beyond Growth he outlines his approach to the problems of growth and development, which he describes in one chapter as "Marxian-Malthusian." In describing the economic and environmental challenges in Northeast Brazil, he writes:

A Marxian-Malthusian definition of social class, in terms of control versus non-control of both production and reproduction, fits the Northeast, and offers a possibility for integrating the valid insights of both traditions. This is important because with the current rebirth of Marxist economics in Brazilian universities, Malthusian insights are in danger of being lost or discarded... The democratization of control over reproduction is no less (and no more) important than the democratization of land ownership in the Northeast.

The "New" Economics Foundation sounds like some very old economics that led not only to vast human misery but unfathomable environmental destruction.