Happiness & Public Policy

From the totally awesome Nietzsche Family Circus, which pairs a random Nietzsche quote with a random Family Circus strip.

Nietzsche is right. Which is why, if you care about your happiness, you should try hard to diminish your taste for power.

My piece on happiness and economic growth in this month’s non-American Prospect has escaped from behind the paywall and is now available for your cost-free reading pleasure. I have to say I’m pretty psyched that my kitten-strapped-to-a-guillotine-connected-to-a-bicycle analogy came through intact:

The fact that average self-reported happiness has not risen with average incomes does not imply that there is no point in becoming richer. A steady rate of growth may be necessary to keep happiness and other good things at a high stable level. (Imagine a guillotine, on which a kitten is strapped, connected to a bicycle that must be pedalled ever more quickly to keep the blade aloft. Slow down, and the kitten gets it.) In The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, Harvard economist Benjamin Friedman argues that steady economic growth “fosters greater opportunity, tolerance of diversity, social mobility, commitment to fairness and dedication to democracy”—a list I doubt any politician would come out against.

I assure you that it all makes sense in context.

This is funny…

British dance star FATBOY SLIM has refused a request from Britain’s Conservative Party to use his 1995 track HAPPINESS during their annual political conference. The party, lead by DAVID CAMERON, asked the DJ’s record label for permission to play the single - released under the name PIZZAMAN - at the conference in Bournemouth, England. The musician, real name NORMAN COOK, is staunchly left-wing and refused to let the right-wing party use his track. He previously blasted the Labour Party for using his song RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW in their election campaign two years ago (04). Cook says, “At least the Conservatives had the decency to ask, unlike Labour. “The Tories, however, remain my least favourite political party - so an empathic no is the answer. “Is Happiness going to be the new direction for the Conservatives? We shall wait and see.”