Jan Delhey and Christian Kroll of Jacobs University Bremen have a new paper out (here in PDF) with the Social Science Research Center Berlin (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung) in which they ask and answer an interesting question: Do recently proposed metrics to replace GDP actually do better than GDP in predicting peoples reported levels of well being?
Their answer, with one exception, is no.
Not surprising really, having sufficient income for discretionary spending is a great enabler. More discretionary spending ability, more enablement.
Ha ha ha. Silly me. I thought they were going to ask whether giving some of your riches to the poor would increase your chances of happiness. Something that a fellow called Jesus made a comment about, if I remember correctly. Silly me !!
You are silly. Jesus didn’t suggest giving money to government to spend. He taught that individuals should help. Corrupt is a better word than silly.
Europeans have poured hundreds of millions into studies proving that the happy people are those who live in mud huts in Africa, ‘in harmony with nature’. And on a dollar a day or less! Surely that’s the way they should go.