Happiness quotient deficient
How economists measure whether you’re happy
All things considered, are you happy with your life as a whole these days? Yes? Good. But are you sure?
Happiness is a big question both for researchers and for policy wonks these days, so it is slightly discomfiting to reflect that people may not even know the answer to the simple question, “Are you happy?”
This happiness business is a difficult one for economists. Alan Krueger, an economist who is also one of the leading happiness researchers, prefers to talk of “subjective well-being,” partly because he thinks “happiness sounds a bit frivolous.”
Krueger is one of a growing army of economists and psychologists who have been discovering counterexamples. For instance, although you choose your spouse but not your parents, people seem to enjoy spending time with their parents more than they enjoy spending time with their spouses. Maybe Oedipus had the right idea after all.
On the other hand, married people claim to be happier than single people do. What explains the discrepancy? The difference rests on an unexpected distinction: How satisfied you are with your life is not at all the same thing as how you feel while you are living it.
Happiness is a purely biological function. Sure, external stimuli can make you happy, but it’s only because those external stimuli affect internal biological functions. There are utterly poor people who are very happy and content with life. While there are wealthy people suffering from depression.
Unless politicians simply started drugging voters, I’m not sure what affect they’ll have.
Math can prove anything. Girls = Evil
First we state that Girls require Time and Money
Girls = Time x Money
And we all know that “Time is Money”
Time = Money
Therefore:
Girls = Money x Money
Girls = Money ^2 (power of 2)
And because “Money is the root of all Evil” (~ = root)
Money = ~Evil
Therefore :
Girls = (~Evil)^2
Thus :
Girls = Evil
(Oh yeah, the Wife did not appreciate this algebra lesson)
Why do you think kids are getting drugged at the drop of a hat lately just for showing a little rambunctiousness in class?
http://www.osmhi.org/
If you label any behavior outside the norm as “mental illness”, you can get away with quite a lot.
#1 – I would respectfully argue that pleasure is more biological whereas “happiness” would tend more toward an intellectual state of the enjoyment of a state of well being.
An example, poor though it may be, would be a spouse with an extra-marital affair from which much pleasure is derived but it makes their life unhappy.
Someone keeps track of these things and measures them for nations and societies. Unfortunately, America scores way down the list while the Nordic nations are at the top.
If Economists Can Quantify Your Happiness, Can Pols Using That To Make You Be Happy Be Far Behind?
That would depend on your definition of a Pol
You have a good reason for being unhappy Pedro…..he won by a landslide.
I have seen your pain, right after Bush won reelection, in the faces of Democrats. 🙂
#5 ““happiness” would tend more toward an intellectual state of the enjoyment of a state of well being.”
Are you saying that there is a function of the brain that exists externally from biology?