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Happiness is a key indicator but it's not the only one


We need a serious measure of wellbeing which includes health, education and other factors
Sabina Alkire The Guardian, Tuesday 7 December 2010 Article history

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Society Poverty Health Mental health Politics Health policy Series Response More from Comment is free on Society Poverty Health Mental health Politics Health policy Series Response Related 14 Nov 2010 Happiness index to gauge Britain's national mood 16 Nov 2010 Measuring up policies on health and happiness 7 Dec 2010 We need to involve girls in decisions about their health 19 Jan 2011 Andrew Lansley draws up prescription for the NHS

It is hugely welcome news that the government is taking concrete steps towards measuring wellbeing alongside traditional monetary measures of progress (UK happiness index to gauge national mood, 15 November). But to affect lives and society, a measure of wellbeing needs to avoid three pitfalls. First, it cannot be flimsy a measure that absorbs public resources makes a headline, but if found wanting will fade into oblivion. Second, it cannot be unbalanced focused on the depression of the rich, not the danger and trials of the poor. Third, it cannot be isolated it cannot spring up entirely disconnected from economics and policy design, yet hope to shift the entire system. Your article explains that it is as yet undecided "whether all indicators should be shrunk into one single wellbeing indicator or simple happiness index". They should. True, flimsy composite measures will be rightly discredited. But simple yet rigorous indices now exist, and can give a better overview of progress than any single indicator alone. They need not be complicated or cause statistical indigestion. Other countries including Bhutan, Colombia and Mexico and the UNDP Human Development Report recognise this, and are developing measures of wellbeing, poverty and inequality that recognise the multi-dimensional nature of these issues. Happiness is a key indicator but not the only one. The emphasis is on wellbeing, as the national statistician, Jil Matheson, recently made clear. The Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi commission, instigated by President Sarkozy, to which your article refers, recommended that governments consider eight factors: subjective wellbeing, health, education, work and activities, political voice and governance, social connectedness, environment and insecurity. Bhutan's gross national happiness index adds culture and time. Wellbeing has several different faces: we need to see them and we can. Your article notes: "The combined wellbeing data set... will have a more central role in policy-making." So the aim is clear and compelling: to

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/07/happiness-index-measure-wellbeing-health-education[24/01/2011 01:00:18 p.m.]

Response: Happiness is a key indicator but it's not the only one | Comment is free | The Guardian

design a measure of wellbeing that not only tells the British people how society is going, but also guides government policies. To take this forward in a way that will visibly improve wellbeing and outlast any single government, the measure needs to be designed with policy in mind. It takes effort to be ground-breaking. Mexico which moved to a multidimensional poverty measure in 2009 first engaged academic, policy and community groups to ensure that the measure would fulfil the expectations placed on it. And, by and large, it has done. The relationship between economics, wellbeing and the environment is in flux. How it will change is not yet clear. But if Britain is to pioneer a measure of wellbeing and use it to guide government policy, the government must commit itself to designing a serious measure that adequately reflects the diverse ways in which people flourish, and is truly useful to those making policy. It's lovely to be happy and even nicer to be happy, housed and well nourished.

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Showing first 50 comments | Show all comments | Go to latest comment SELAVY 7 December 2010 8:15AM Recommend (54) Report abuse
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Happiness is a million pound bonus whilst others are struggling. Happiness is having a daddy who can pay one's' tuition fees. Happiness is making a pledge which you can ignore when it has gained you power. Happiness is being wealthy enough not to have to care about the demise of the NHS Happiness is dictating policy whilst not paying tax like Ashcroft and Green. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.........

Katali 7 December 2010 8:19AM

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Good article, but I guess whichever government does this can spin the results to show how well their policies are working. I grow more cynical each day about our noble leaders of all parties.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/07/happiness-index-measure-wellbeing-health-education[24/01/2011 01:00:18 p.m.]

Response: Happiness is a key indicator but it's not the only one | Comment is free | The Guardian Recommend (2) 7 December 2010 8:22AM Report abuse
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Happiness is having something to have a good bloody moan about. No shortage there I fear.

Sipech 7 December 2010 8:22AM

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It's lovely to be happy and even nicer to be happy, housed and well nourished. Very well said! There have been times in my life when I haven't had a roof over my head or food on the table, and that is far more important than whether or not I'm a cheerful person. As it happens, I'm a miserable sod, but my well-being is not in question at the moment, for which I am thankful yet I remain glum. It's just a shame that the present government's policies of slash and burn are likely to cause individuals and families to lose their jobs, pushing some of them out of their homes. It then takes some nerve to ask them how happy they are. Call me Dave: "Your job in the public sector doesn't have as much value as my personal photographer, so you'll be losing your job while he keeps his (albeit under a different official employer). Mind if I kick you at the gonads while you're down? Now, tell me how happy you are..."

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Agent3244 7 December 2010 8:29AM

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Yep, we should dispense with our preocuupation with judging success, security, or contentment through the faux capital of money and recognise instead very real capitals like health, family cohesion, social cohesion, and a strong sense of mutuality.

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Vraaak 7 December 2010 8:30AM

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http://www.5capitals.com/background.htm sums it up neatly "Natural capital The natural resources (energy, environment and matter) and processes needed by organizations to produce their products and deliver their services. Social capital Any value added to the activities and economic outputs of an organization by human relationships, partnerships and co-operation. Human capital Incorporates the health, knowledge, skills, intellectual outputs, motivation and capacity for relationships of the individual. Manufactured capital Refers to material goods and infrastructure owned, leased or controlled by an organization such as tools, technology, machines, buildings and all forms of infrastructure. Financial capital Reflects the productive power and value of the other four types of capital and includes those assets of an organization that exist in a form of currency that can be owned or traded" The corporocracy knows this only too well, and a cynic might say has done for years. "As long as we can make financial capital at the expense of others, make sure everyone is looking the other way and society will bear the cost" A good example is the railways being a closed system (notwithstanding the obscene profits), requiring subsidy, yet while competitors make more pollution, someone else pays for the infrastructure (you and me), so road building is investment - freight by road seems cheaper to the user, but society bears the wider cost from pollution, accidents, and congestion. Another example is the threat of job cuts. Stress and fear in the workplace is

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/07/happiness-index-measure-wellbeing-health-education[24/01/2011 01:00:18 p.m.]

Response: Happiness is a key indicator but it's not the only one | Comment is free | The Guardian supposed to be great for productivity, a volatile workforce is cheaper to run, but in actuality has so many ramifications on human health and wellbeing, that productivity actually decreases. [the bit not everyone reads at the end of Henry A. Landsberger, Hawthorne Revisited, Ithaca, 1958]. In other words, people on contracts in the knowledge based economy go, and take knowledge with them. the bean counters don't reckon on saving a month or two of pay in slack times isn't worth 5 months of a new employee needing to learn the ropes, factoring in the demotivating effect of staff turnover. This is why our best scientists are all b**ering off to Canada. starring Nicole Kidman

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FergusQuadro 7 December 2010 8:30AM

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Happiness on a nation-wide scale is having a basis of security: a government you can trust and currency that appears stable.

DonGilCalzasVerdes 7 December 2010 8:34AM

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Why put it in figures? Who does'nt know if the country prospers or not on the wellbeing front. I'm sure it is the wrong tactics to make the masses happy. If you are a conservative government.

fibmac70 7 December 2010 8:43AM

Editor Holmfirth, nr. Huddersfield, West Yorkshire | 20,000 + (depending on skills and ability) LETTS

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The Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi commission, instigated by President Sarkozy, ........... recommended that governments consider eight factors: subjective wellbeing, health, education, work and activities, political voice and governance, social connectedness, environment and insecurity Ticky-boxy is not the British way We're happiest being miserable, OK ?

RogerF 7 December 2010 8:44AM

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This will just be an excuse not to help poor people - the line will be "you don't need money to be happy, so stop complaining".

Bluejil 7 December 2010 8:44AM

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Should be easy, but can't possibly be when the priorities of government and society worships elitism and markets and truly believes that if you keep a minority at the top happy the rest will come. Inequality is always the downfall of any society, obvious when we cut all the trees there is no shade for the axeman. Greed does not allow for a happy society. Sipech said it best and it is worth repeating, imo. Call me Dave: "Your job in the public sector doesn't have as much value as my personal photographer, so you'll be losing your job while he keeps his (albeit under a different official employer). Mind if I kick you at the gonads while you're down? Now, tell me how happy you are..."

donalpain 7 December 2010 8:44AM

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/07/happiness-index-measure-wellbeing-health-education[24/01/2011 01:00:18 p.m.]

Response: Happiness is a key indicator but it's not the only one | Comment is free | The Guardian We need a serious measure of wellbeing which includes health, education and other factors The simplicity implied of such an objective belies the difficulties. Moreover, the complete article is a statement of the bleedin' obvious. The devil is in the complexity,accuracy and manipulation of the data gathered. There is an existing plethora of data available. It's not much use because it is not diligently recorded, it is poorly coordinated,and it is badly analysed. The last thing required is a battalion of half credible spies scribbling away in isolation in Jim Hacker's Department of Administration achieving the cube root of zilch and then it being used to foment policies that will achieve the need for even deeper and more intrusive studies while producing chaos. "Joined up government "is like the utilities companies who constantly dig up our roads to lay their own specialised cables one after the other out of synchronization and bugger up the school run traffic. Let each specialism continue to ferret away, sifting and collating its data and publishing it in erudite journals beyond the ken of normal folk. See what falls through the sieve of public interest and put the ensuing detritus to discussion in the agora. Looking for a model? See the excellent "Time Watch".

Strummered 7 December 2010 8:48AM

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They do say that 'Ignorance is bliss' - Maybe that is all part of the plan?

Vraaak 7 December 2010 8:50AM

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"This will just be an excuse not to help poor people - the line will be "you don't need money to be happy, so stop complain" Indeed. You don't need lots more money to be happy as long as there isn't someone with lots of it trying to take away what you've got left. Money doesn't bring happiness, but it does make being miserable a lot easier.

Hemiplegia 7 December 2010 9:08AM

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Happiness is Christmas in the local prison.

CharleySays 7 December 2010 9:22AM

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I really can't understand how people equate the government with happiness. To me happiness is my family and friends. Everything else is just background noise.

Monkeybiz 7 December 2010 9:34AM

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Are you a. Happy? b. Very happy? c. Extraordinarily happy? d. Deliriously happy? e. A millionaire? Choose one only.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/07/happiness-index-measure-wellbeing-health-education[24/01/2011 01:00:18 p.m.]

Response: Happiness is a key indicator but it's not the only one | Comment is free | The Guardian SamVega 7 December 2010 9:51AM Recommend (13) Report abuse
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simple yet rigorous indices now exist, and can give a better overview of progress than any single indicator alone What makes me uneasy is that we are not only thinking that it is the job of someone else (governments, in this case) to make us happy, but we are also allowing them to determine what happiness is.

junglederry 7 December 2010 10:01AM

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The best things in life are free.........http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=FEjlKOEjM1M

Hemiplegia 7 December 2010 10:31AM

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Panglossianism since this is the best of all possible worlds, it is impossible for anything to get any better. Cameron taking the ?iss To rile, mock, or be a jerk to another person whether or not the person is joking or being serious. Thanks Cameron

chiefwiley 7 December 2010 10:45AM

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I have found that most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. ... Abraham Lincoln

MawalTrees 7 December 2010 10:50AM

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It's really getting to the point where you can only conclude the people in power are either not very bright or are just plain evil. This wave of national happiness talk is yet the latest attempt to appease the disgruntled massives with crumbs from the table whilst the elites continue to hoard power, priviledge and wealth unconstrained. I mean funnily enough when your ought and about and you either talk directly to people or overhear people talking you don't come across many conversations relating to why the government isn't doing enough to oversea my happiness. Are the Tories really offering little more than nanny state part II. The very last thing I would imagine people want is the government meddling in their happiness quotients. What it really is, is yet another attempt to sell you a hog that's described as a thoroughbred race horse: 1. First some dodgy professor from somewhere will invent a government approved happiness index. 2. Once implimented said index will comfirm what we already know, that most of us are NOT HAPPY. 3a. The clever bit is here. Please read carefully. What will happen is said professors and politicians will effectively say well you SHOULD BE HAPPY. You and your kids never had it so good. You don't work in sweat shops do you? 3b. Another way to put it is a way will be found to convince you that the only reason your not happy is because your too thick to understand how happy you are and how fantastic life in Britain really is.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/07/happiness-index-measure-wellbeing-health-education[24/01/2011 01:00:18 p.m.]

Response: Happiness is a key indicator but it's not the only one | Comment is free | The Guardian 4. The project will be hailed as a success with loads of stats, charts, and computer models 'proving' this. Random people will be kidnapped off the streets and forced to admit after going through the HAWBMAT [Happiness And Well Being Mental Adjustment Therapy Sponsored by Tesco's and Facebook Inch], that they've now realised they are happy after all and how brilliant Call Me Dave is, and the government in general. The top graduates will even admit to liking Nick Clegg and assure us they even love their own children and their job at a call centre. 5. Thus the government having spent just under 10billion HAWBMAT, concludes it doesn't need to do anything other than what it is already doing. HAWBMAT is then sold for 2million quid plus a 30 year government lease to a group of 'private investors' headed by David Blunkett proving this isn't a Tory stitchup. --------------------------------C'mon we've been on this merry go round before. And academics buying into this nonsense and thus giving it some appearance of respectability ought to be ashamed of themselves but probably aren't. What people want is the one thing the government and establishment has zero intention of delivering and that folks is FAIRNESS and Equal Opportunity. Where in Britain a Man, Woman or Child's destiny is determined by their God given gifts, and their determination to succeed not by which postcode they were born in, how rich their parents are, or the fact the reason the got into Oxbridge or that job at Goldmans is because their Uncle works there. You can't deliver this meritocracy, you have no desire to, because if you did you [government and 90% of UK senior management] would be out on your ears. Rant over.

Vecchia 7 December 2010 10:53AM

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What would make me happy would be to have another look at that clever video which appeared before the election, showing Cameron and Osborne singing to "Common People". You know, the one that goes, "We`re Tories. That`s what we do !" Does anyone have the link ?

Macnelson 7 December 2010 10:55AM

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Happiness is a Cigar called Hamlet, everyone knows that...

Germanlady 7 December 2010 11:11AM

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Happiness of people can never be a political agenda, as it is so vague and undefined, that you could never make policies, based on the idea of "raising the happiness index" of your citizens. Instead, it looks like something out of the light entertainment industry, a marketing idea, a slogan, a positive word to bring into connection with the present government, where so much they do is connected with doom and gloom.

Atavism 7 December 2010 11:18AM

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How about a benchmark life, same as the CPI's benchmark basket of groceries?

OneGonk 7 December 2010 11:21AM

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Stupid box ticking. Happiness is hardly the same thing from person to person. Personally I'd like to see how miserable I would be if I was stinking rich.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/07/happiness-index-measure-wellbeing-health-education[24/01/2011 01:00:18 p.m.]

Response: Happiness is a key indicator but it's not the only one | Comment is free | The Guardian

Atavism 7 December 2010 11:22AM

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I'd nominate someone who can go on one two week holiday a year, feed themselves a healthy diet, travel to a point within a 200 mile radius of their home every second week, Has a bedroom solely for their or they and their partner's use, can have a pet if they want one and has no unsecured debt beyond their ability to pay in a 2 month period.

Atavism 7 December 2010 11:23AM

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Happiness is a warm gun according to bib-overall n' banjo fans...

JamesStGeorge 7 December 2010 11:27AM

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SELAVY 7 December 2010 8:15AM Rubbish. If you 'need' all that you will be miserable for ever, and serve you right. Screwed up inside with envy. Happiness is keeping expectation below what you can have, whatever the level financially. Easy. Clearly happiness is impossible to measure, some people enjoy being miserable, spiteful and greedy. Take pleasures from the everyday beauties of life, costs nothing.

crankyank 7 December 2010 11:48AM

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Happiness is measured by the degree of conformity to left-wing orthodoxy and the ensuing approval of Guardian readers.

publunch 7 December 2010 12:03PM

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It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question.

penileplethysmograph 7 December 2010 12:50PM

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Good article. I would suggest that multi attribute utility theory is the obvious candidate for this kind of exercise. It is well grounded mathematically and can be nested etc. Different dimensions of value (of which 'happiness' may be one) can be differentially weighted (eg by different stakeholders) but can also be aggregated allowing a single value to be derived.

EdiLass

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/07/happiness-index-measure-wellbeing-health-education[24/01/2011 01:00:18 p.m.]

Response: Happiness is a key indicator but it's not the only one | Comment is free | The Guardian

7 December 2010 1:12PM

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"Wellbeing has several different faces: we need to see them and we can" You seem to be suggesting the following factors: subjective wellbeing, health, education, work and activities, political voice and governance, social connectedness, environment and insecurity,. My health is poor and will continue to deteriorate. I am too ill to work or participate in many activities. I've had to give up the course I was on. I am increasingly isolated due to my mobility problems. All three major parties have abondoned the disabled and chronically sick in their support of reforms to disability benefits, so I have no political voice. My environment is limited to the inside of my flat which I find impossible to maintain. I have little or no financial security as the reforms to disability benefits push ahead.

RichardWhittington 7 December 2010 1:24PM

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I disagree. Happiness is all that matters; everything thing else is subordinate. if you have health, education or other issues your happiness will be adversely affected. Keep it simple and stick to happiness as the yardstick. We don't want to create a bureaucratic monster.

mintaka 7 December 2010 1:59PM

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It may be very well-intentioned to seek to craft better instruments, but part of the problem is the idea that everything should be seen in instrumental terms. How about if the government went about the business of securing a degree of individual liberty, social stability and economic security for everyone, and then let people get on with fashioning their own happiness? I'd rather that it didn't pursue GDP growth singlemindedly, but I'd say the same about any other measure that was to replace it.

BurgermaS 7 December 2010 2:56PM

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MawalTrees 7 December 2010 10:50AM It's really getting to the point where you can only conclude the people in power are either not very bright or are just plain evil. Let me answer that one. If you were getting a pub quiz team together would you want Callme Cameron in it? I wouldn't - he seems dead weight, doesn't know anything. Little life experience amazing for a man (or pretend man) in his position, and not bright to start with - I don't see any of the telltales of intelligence with that guy. So yes, not very bright. Evil - slightly but not knowingly. Careerist politicians want to advance and will do anything to do so. Like that dog Blair - millions dead but he got his stellar career. Sorry that was unfair to dogs - none of their kind would betray like he had. But the point is they don't care about you, they don't care about me, but they must pretend they do to advance. They care about satisfying their masters - the money men, the banks, the old powerful families. Our politicians are simply the managerial classes for these people - that is the job if you expect to succeed. George Carlin sums up the situation very well here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIC0eZYEtI Strangely enough I am happy but I do understand the situation we have. You don't need any indicators to realise the people of this country are not happy generally - just walk around and see the symptoms, the drug abuse, the anger, the miserable faces, the isolation, the consumerist attempts to alleviate the unhappiness. We are people who are victims of an ongoing divide and rule strategy - even the families are falling apart. We are exactly where they want us - desperate and therefore malleable and controllable in economic terms. Just cattle on a farm, milked until there's nothing left. Someone dreamt that up, and that's evil, but I don't think the politicians started it - just

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/07/happiness-index-measure-wellbeing-health-education[24/01/2011 01:00:18 p.m.]

Response: Happiness is a key indicator but it's not the only one | Comment is free | The Guardian played their part to advance their careers.

JoWood 7 December 2010 4:17PM

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Happiness isn't a key indicator that a political party is doing their job. I am 'happy' because I am surrounded by wonderful support/family/friends etc. I am 'happy' because I chose to move to a part of the country where I can walk on the beach after a hard days work. I am 'happy' because I put my Christmas tree up on the weekend. I work hard at my 'happiness'. I am 'happy' despite a hike in student fees; despite the fact Cornwall house prices remain 17 times above the average wage; despite the fact unemployment in the county is at an all-time high... I take full responsibility for my happiness, thanks - it's certainly not the doing of the government.

JoWood 7 December 2010 4:45PM

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Blimey - just read my comment and it sounds really angry. Only at the gvnmt, you understand, not the article/contributor..! x

MawalTrees 7 December 2010 5:22PM

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BurgermaS Ta always helps in terms of general sanity to know you are not alone in you thinking. I always say to people, those fundamental questions like why is everything so sh't? The answers to these questions are right in front of your eyes. Dirty streets, lack of common respect out there, sneering at others is at the height of vogue, and lets not forget the whole getting to places because of who you know [or shagged], not what you know. That said, I do love this country. I do believe it's fully of extremely gifted people, with wonder ideas and characters and traditions and it's a real shame so many are swept aside in favour of turning the careerists who don't have a sincere thought in their minds, a sincere gesture or genuine care about society, turning these people in deities. It's such a waste of our overall potential, and the problem is the incompetents seem to gain more power and priviledge by the day. I just wish the rest would wake up and do something about it. But they've even got that covered, you simply get your file put on you somewhere on some database and no doubt get arrested on suspicion of some trumped up charge which whilst it won't stick the smear will stay, if you chose to fight back or expose. Mr Assange has just been arrested by the country I was brought up to believe bows down to no higher authority.

stevlknevl 7 December 2010 5:53PM

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When I was 5 years old my Mum told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wrote down "Happy". They told me I didn't understand the assignment, I told them they didn't understand life.

HolyInsurgent 7 December 2010 7:04PM

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SELAVY 7 December 2010 8:15AM Happiness is a million pound bonus whilst others are struggling.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/07/happiness-index-measure-wellbeing-health-education[24/01/2011 01:00:18 p.m.]

Response: Happiness is a key indicator but it's not the only one | Comment is free | The Guardian Happiness is the right to post cynical commentary. Still, one has to admit the comment is a valid presentation of Western nations' mass beliefs. Number one on the list: the more money I have, the more everyone else can be shat upon from great heights. The Holy Insurgent of Uncertainty

HolyInsurgent 7 December 2010 7:14PM

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stevlknevl 7 December 2010 5:53PM When I was 5 years old my Mum told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wrote down "Happy". They told me I didn't understand the assignment, I told them they didn't understand life. "What I wanted to be when I grew up...." You can see how children are linguistically programmed from the beginning to be cogs in a market economy. The paradigm is that every child will grow up to have a profession in a market economy. No thought in the paradigm is given to our childrens' emotions or value fulfillment. The Holy Insurgent of Uncertainty

gwillikers 7 December 2010 7:18PM

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Happiness. Every morning for 21 years I have woken up and said good-morning to my wife. I see her smile and I immediately feel an overwhelming feeling of.....happiness. Try measuring it and get back to me.

HolyInsurgent 7 December 2010 7:21PM

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crankyank 7 December 2010 11:48AM Happiness is measured by the degree of conformity to left-wing orthodoxy and the ensuing approval of Guardian readers. Translation: Happiness is measured by the degree of conformity to right-wing orthodoxy and the ensuing disapproval of Guardian readers. Else, why do such people post in CiF? The Holy Insurgent of Uncertainty

HolyInsurgent 7 December 2010 7:27PM

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Katali 7 December 2010 8:19AM I grow more cynical each day about our noble leaders of all parties. You mean "all the main parties". What if there is a party out there that you do agree with? Will you still vote for one of the main parties because of the belief that voting for a better party is "a wasted vote"? If there is no such party, then increase your happiness by creating and supporting a new one. The Holy Insurgent of Uncertainty

Acamar 7 December 2010 9:35PM

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I would be happy to see Cameron and Clegg tarred with feathers, taken through the

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/07/happiness-index-measure-wellbeing-health-education[24/01/2011 01:00:18 p.m.]

Response: Happiness is a key indicator but it's not the only one | Comment is free | The Guardian streets, and then taken to a suitable beach and thrown out of our country.

RogerINtheUSA 7 December 2010 11:13PM

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My guess is that the objective is to find an index that will show that the current government is doing an excellent job and that a screwed up economy really isn't all that important after all. If the happiness figures start to go down they'll invent a new index - maybe a seriousness index, showing how the society has matured. How it's abandoned frivolity and the infantile "pursuit of happiness"

RogerINtheUSA 7 December 2010 11:16PM

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* junglederry 7 December 2010 10:01AM The best things in life are free.........http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=FEjlKOEjM1M Brilliant! Could be instituted as the new national anthem. Praise the lawd and pass the soma.

ghostsandAngels 8 December 2010 12:25AM

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we need a General Election

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