Our pal Mangan directed us yesterday to an interesting item, from Britain’s Institute of Economic Affairs, on the idea of ‘political correctness’ as an expression, not of one’s actual beliefs, but as a ‘signaling’ mechanism employed to enhance status. (This is not a new idea, but this is a good treatment of it.)
Inside the article is a link (linked text: ‘Easterlin paradox’) to a previous IEA article that you should make a point of reading. The sublinked item, from 2012, has the title Government shouldn’t worry about our happiness ”“ new research shows.
That item, in turn, contains a link to a detailed IEA report on the subject, which you can download free of charge.
Key points:
— The government should not be trying to measure or maximise happiness as an explicit policy goal.
— There is no evidence that more equal societies lead to increases in happiness.
— Smaller government tends to make people happier.
— Contrary to widespread belief, the evidence suggests that happiness is in fact related to income and economic growth.
Sounds about right to me, of course, with one caveat: that last point could be taken in support of the idea that economic criteria trump all others, as the unholy alliance of open-borders advocates on both sides of the aisle keep telling us. There are, however, other factors that are also of critical importance for happiness, and community life and social cohesion are near the top of the list.