ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the concept of welfare and the contention that it must be made sustainable. A common idea nowadays is that traditional welfare states, development and economic growth are environmentally destructive. A related problem with economic growth is the so-called hedonic treadmill, although gross domestic product (GDP) increases over time, the reported subjective well-being of people in the developed world seems to remain the same. Welfarism is the view that well-being is the only value that matters ethically. The traditional welfarist position is utilitarianism and the following developments of welfare economics. Traditionally, welfare has been understood in terms of felt pleasure satisfaction, however, due to the increasing dominance of new welfare economics, it has become commonplace to equate welfare with preference satisfaction. The analysis of welfare focuses on so-called prudential values, that is, what is good for a person, which should be distinguished from other kinds of values, such as aesthetic, ethical and arguably perfectionist values.
