Happiness & Public Policy

If you’re looking for a better happiness blog than this one, i.e., one that actually updates, I can recommend none more than Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project blog. The blog is prep for Gretchen’s forthcoming book, which is

a memoir about this year, during which I’m testing every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study I can find, whether from Aristotle or St. Therese or Martin Seligman or Oprah. I’m gathering these rules for living from everywhere I can, and I’ll report what works and what doesn’t. This happiness blog is part of my larger project.

Fantastic idea. And the blog’s a great read. There are a number of happiness blogs out there, but most of them are dippy rah rah self-improvement things, and though Gretchen’s blog and book is about self-improvement, it’s neither dippy nor rah rah. It’s smart, literate, psychologically sophisticated and plain interesting.

If you happen to be a subscriber to the Prospect (the British one), you can read my article on why politicians who say they care about happiness have got to care about economic growth and economic freedom. Otherwise, you can read the first 2.5 paragraphs. I’ll let you know if they make it free for non-subscribers.

Derive:

• Average happiness does not fall.

From

• If average income rises, then average happiness does not rise or fall.

• Average income does not rise.

Oh. What’s that? You can’t? Because nothing follows from the negation of the antecedent? Right.