New documentary explores economics of happiness (BTW, happiness peaked in 1956 in the US)

[JohnyCanuck]

Run time: 03:25 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYEvFRQchyw   Posted on YouTube: October 21, 2010 By YouTube Member: brianpatrickemerson Views on YouTube: 8032   Posted on DU: February 20, 2011 By DU Member: JohnyCanuck Views on DU: 484

 

"The number of Americans who say, 'Yes, I'm very happy with my life' peaks in 1956 and goes slowly but steadily downhill ever since."

That's environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, speaking in the new documentary The Economics of Happiness. While our Gross Domestic Product has increased quite a bit since the '50s, our happiness hasn't (though we have seen hefty increases in the size of our landfills, waistlines, and credit card debt).

Our global economy is effective at many things—moving huge quantities of goods across great distances, for example, or turning mortgages into profits. What it's not so good at is determining whether these activities are worthwhile when it comes to improving the lives of the people who live and work within the economy (not to mention preserving the natural systems on which the whole shebang depends). In many cases, economic policies that increase trade or production actually decrease well-being for millions, even billions, of people.

That's the reality that's leading more people (and, increasingly, governments, from Bhutan and Bolivia to Britain and France) to ask a very simple question: What's the economy for, anyway? Do the rules and policies we create to govern the flow of money and goods exist to create ever more money and goods, or to improve our lives? And if we decide we'd like to prioritize the latter, how do we rewrite the rules to do that?

The Economics of Happiness tackles these questions on six continents, examining ways our economic decisions promote, and diminish, human happiness. I spoke with Helena Norberg-Hodge, the film's director and the founder of the International Society for Ecology and Culture, about what her research tells us about the relationship between economics and happiness.

Click on link below to read transcript of the interview:
http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2011-02-18/%E2%80%9Clocalization-economics-happiness%E2%80%9D

[RKP5637]

1. I can't begin to agree enough that the happiness factor in the US is constantly

going downhill. Even the ones with wealth don't seem happy. In fact, much of the US is downright miserable IMO.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. That was a lot more true for employed white people

than for a lot of others in 1956.

[cantbeserious]

3. What's the economy for, anyway? - The Most Appropriate Question To Ask

eom

[NOLALady]

4. 1956? Unbelievable!

Many Americans couldn't even vote in 1956.

[JohnyCanuck]

5. But.....

many more of them could vote than couldn't vote, and overall the total percentage of happy people was higher than it is today (assuming the documentary's sources are accurate). You have to remember too, by and large, the ones that could and did vote didn't lose much sleep over the ones that couldn't vote. Given the attitudes prevalent at the time, the factor that a substantial part of a large minority of the US population was disenfranchised would not have contributed to much unhappiness among the voting sector of society. That's the way I would interpret it anyway.

[NOLALady]

6. I understand that the voters were happy.

I also understand that 1956 was not a happy time for all Americans, especially those living under Jim Crow.
Tensions were on the rise in my neck of the woods because of the Board of Education decision of 1954. It was the beginning of white flight for the voting folks, because of their fear of school integration.

[Overseas]

7. K&R for Bill McKibben ! //nt