Happiness, Government and GDP

What is happiness?

Many lifetimes (some might even say all lifetimes) have been spent in its “pursuit”.  Many books have been written on the subject.  Many philosophers and ordinary people have endlessly debated it.

In most modern societies happiness is seen as a very personal aspect of ones life.  There is a belief that how happy you are is in many ways dependent on sheer force of will.  This belief is personified in the following quote:

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. – Abraham Lincoln

But is this true?  Can you really just decide to be happy?  And what effect do outside forces have on your happiness.  What about your friends and family, your neighbors, and finally what about the laws (both written and unwritten) that guide the society you live in? How much of an impact does the very nature of society itself have on your happiness?

Society, Government and Happiness

In 1776 Thomas Jefferson penned these immortal words into the Declaration of Independence

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

… and…

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

Which means in a way that the very purpose of government itself is to maximize our right to happiness.

How Greed Replaced the Pursuit of Happiness

Early on in the history of the United States we began to associate an increased level of material wealth or “standard of living” with increased levels of happiness and for a while this seemed to be working quite well.  As people gained access to running water, electricity, steady jobs, a home for their family they did become more happy.

At some point the entire focus of American society and to some extent societies around the world went from “How can we maximize happiness” to  “How can we maximize our material wealth” as if these two concepts were one in the same.  In this way greed replaced happiness.

This is no longer working

Unfortunately, It turns out even though our “standard of living” has more than doubled in the past 60 years our happiness levels have actually stayed the same or declined.

Yet at the same time our focus on increasing GDP, increasing wealth, and increasing standard of living has remained.  Which begs the question:

“If increasing GDP and material wealth isn’t making us any happier then what’s the point?”

So, what is the point?

Answer: there is no point, were doing it because it’s what we know how to do, it’s a pattern we’ve been stuck in that we can seem to get out of. Unfortunately it’s also a pattern that is destroying our environment, stealing resources from our neighbors and making us competitive, greedy, jealous and unhappy in the process.

So What’s Next?

As a society we need to redirect our focus from that of increasing material wealth and consumption to:

• Increased focus on happiness and a decreased focus on GDP and “standard of living”
• Increased equality and the redistribution of wealth
• Increased job security (vs a focus on corporate profits and a “mobile workforce”)
• Increased focus on giving and philanthropy (vs. making money and profits)
• Increased focus on living below your means and being happy with what you already have

How do we do all this?

Stay tuned….

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