Post by shoreman on Sept 27, 2006 11:54:06 GMT -5
Are You Happy Yet?
by Paul Jacob
Freer people are happier people.
I'm not sure we need a special study to figure that out, even though happiness is a hard thing to pin down.
Sure, in a free society, someone can have great looks and health and all the best movie deals, and still be unhappy. Yet the unhappy rich -- say, a healthy if depressed movie star -- is still probably happier than somebody dying of thirst in the desert or wasting away in some dictator's gulag.
When you're free, you can at least pursue your happiness, make money, build a family, openly criticize what's wrong in society. On the other hand, the more effectively you're outlawed from speaking openly, making money, marrying the person you love, etc., the harder it is to find happiness.
We may not need a study to see that, but we've got one.
Actually the study suggests, according to the headline at NewScientist.com, that it's "wealthy nations" that "hold the keys to happiness." Adrian White at the University of Leicester has ranked countries by life expectancy, well-being and the reports people give of how happy they are. He says "There is a belief that capitalism leads to unhappy people," he says. Not so. It turns out that the richer and more capitalist countries tend to have happier people.
But nations don't get rich unless they have some degree of economic freedom, so we're back to freedom as a major social engine of happiness. And that is a very happy result.
Paul Jacob's "Common Sense" is published by Americans for Limited Government. Their website can be visited at www.limitedgov.org
by Paul Jacob
Freer people are happier people.
I'm not sure we need a special study to figure that out, even though happiness is a hard thing to pin down.
Sure, in a free society, someone can have great looks and health and all the best movie deals, and still be unhappy. Yet the unhappy rich -- say, a healthy if depressed movie star -- is still probably happier than somebody dying of thirst in the desert or wasting away in some dictator's gulag.
When you're free, you can at least pursue your happiness, make money, build a family, openly criticize what's wrong in society. On the other hand, the more effectively you're outlawed from speaking openly, making money, marrying the person you love, etc., the harder it is to find happiness.
We may not need a study to see that, but we've got one.
Actually the study suggests, according to the headline at NewScientist.com, that it's "wealthy nations" that "hold the keys to happiness." Adrian White at the University of Leicester has ranked countries by life expectancy, well-being and the reports people give of how happy they are. He says "There is a belief that capitalism leads to unhappy people," he says. Not so. It turns out that the richer and more capitalist countries tend to have happier people.
But nations don't get rich unless they have some degree of economic freedom, so we're back to freedom as a major social engine of happiness. And that is a very happy result.
Paul Jacob's "Common Sense" is published by Americans for Limited Government. Their website can be visited at www.limitedgov.org