[EMAIL PROTECTED] (who may or may not have a regular name) wrote:
>Andrew Oswald ... April 1997 ... "Happiness and Economic Performance".
>... offers a much-needed reminder that economic growth is only a means
>to an end. Economic things (more GDP, a lower CPI, etc) only matter
>in so far as they make people happier. ...
>1. Better economic performance and growth does not mean more happiness.
>2. Happiness is relative. ... often gender-specific ... dependent upon
>age ...
>5. The key driver and source of UNHAPPINESS is unemployment and
>underemployment.
People seem to want more from life than happiness. They often seem to
trade their happiness for other things that they want. I would rather
give people what they want than to just make them happy. Of course it
remains an open question just how much GDP helps people get what they want.
>Should the members of the Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal
>Reserve throw their beige books out the window and instead sit on park
>benches in the Washington Mall and count the number of frowning passerbys?
I do think it would be worthwhile to collect statistics on happiness,
to include in an extended measure of national welfare. But I wouldn't
include only happiness in such a measure.
Robin Hanson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
