……. and the Pursuit of Happiness

The Institute of Economic Affairs,UK, has brought out an interesting report recentlycalled ‘……and the Pursuit of Happiness’.You can download your copy from here: http://www.iea.org.uk/publications/research/and-the-pursuit-of-happiness

Following are the excerpts I found particularly interesting:-

‘Contrary to popular perception, new statistical work suggests that happiness is related to income. This relationship holds between countries, within countries and over time. The relationship is robust and also holds at higher levels of income as well as at lower levels of income. This calls into question the assertion that people are on a ‘hedonic treadmill’ that prevents them becoming happier as their income rises beyond a certain level of income.’

‘There is no evidence that equality is related to happiness.The clearest determinants of wellbeing would seem to be employment, marriage, religious belief and avoiding poverty.None of these is obviously correlated with income equality.’

So it seems that being wealthy and making ever more money,remaining gainfully employed,getting and staying happily married and cultivating faith in a Higher Power seems to be a working formula to be happy,