Comments on: In Pursuit of Happiness Research: Is It Reliable? What Does It Imply for Policy?

By: Will Wilkinson

Will Wilkinson — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:15:46 +0000

John, Yes!

By: John Hood

John Hood — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 15:20:25 +0000

Will, I thoroughly enjoyed the report and will probably write a column about it eventually. Will also do a Corner post on it when I get a chance. Happy now?

By: Seth Delackner

Seth Delackner — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 04:56:49 +0000

Dave Eaton argues that maybe our brains are built to worry about things even if we have no real problems, so we should not worry about whether americans say they are happy?

Having spent 3 years now living in Japan, 6 months living in France, 6 months in New York, 5 years in San Diego, and ages in San Francisco, the one constant has been that everywhere people have very different baseline levels of worry. It is clearly not just evolutionary, nor is it just about quality of life. It doesn’t matter if people are “objectively better” off (health care, etc) if social norms make them so miserable that they kill themselves.

By: Dave Eaton

Dave Eaton — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 01:50:56 +0000

This area is very interesting to me. It appears, from the outside, to be the latest attempt for a certain class of intellectual to affirm that they know best for us.

One thing I wonder- what if a free market doesn’t lead to happiness, but in fact does lead to objectively better lives for people?

Would it be reasonable to suggest that people have a finite ‘worry pile’, and keep it filled with something no matter how good their objective conditions are? I worry about my children getting in to top-tier schools, or being abducted by weirdos, however remote the possibility of either. My great-grandparents worried about having to bury theirs.

While I rationally know my worries are not serious compared to theirs, I might well report myself as no happier. There might even be a ‘conservation of misery’ principle that is a legacy of evolution, the way worry warts stay alive.

But I am better off than my great-grandparents, and far more secure in nearly every way, and I don’t think left wing academic redistributionist fantasies have had anything to do with it.

By: dearieme

dearieme — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 21:56:31 +0000

Good for you. However, it’s better not to use “table” as a verb if you are writing for an international readership.

By: Lester Hunt

Lester Hunt — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 06:19:35 +0000

This is some serious writing about a serious subject. I now know what I will be doing with the first few days of my summer vacation: reading your report!

By: Random Law Student

Random Law Student — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 19:11:01 +0000

“It is not a short paper, nor is it written at a USA Today level of difficulty.” Having read a few pages and your blog, I conclude the problem is your writing, not the subject matter. Your style suffers from excess verbiage and redundant constructions — stylistic problems symptomatic of analytic philosophy. At any rate, congratulations on your accomplishment.

By: odograph

odograph — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 15:43:24 +0000

I’ll have to read it. The thing that piques my immediate interest is the phrase “the American model.”

IMO, the pivotal battle in post-millennial American politics has been whether the traditional “American model,” of moderate democratic capitalism, should be overthrown for something much more free-wheeling.

Even two years ago I would have said that things trended that way.

By: Deborah

Deborah — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 22:09:36 +0000

Damn, Will, 44 pages! Congratulations!

By: Swimmy

Swimmy — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:46:57 +0000

Finally! I know what I’m doing after class.