Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America--and How We Can Get More of It |...

Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America--and How We Can Get More of It | Arthur C. Brooks | sources of happiness in America

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Gross National Hap...

	Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America--and How We Can Get More of It Arthur C. Brooks Basic Books, 2008 - 277 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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Who are the happiest Americans? Surveys show that religious people think they are happier than secularists, and secularists think they are happier than religious people. Liberals believe they are happier than conservatives, and conservatives disagree. In fact, almost every group thinks it is happier than everyone else. In this provocative new book, Arthur C. Brooks explodes the myths about happiness in America. As he did in the controversial Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism, Brooks examines vast amounts of evidence and empirical research to uncover the truth about who is happy in America, who is not, and-most important-why. He finds that there is a real ?happiness gap? in America today, and it lies disconcertingly close to America?s cultural and political fault lines. The great divide between the happy and the unhappy in America, Brooks shows, is largely due to differences in social and cultural values. The values that bring happiness are faith, charity, hard work, optimism, and individual liberty. Secularism, excessive reliance on the state to solve problems, and an addiction to security all promote unhappiness. What can be done to maximize America?s happiness? Replete with the unconventional wisdom for which Brooks has come to be known, Gross National Happiness offers surprising and illuminating conclusions about how our government can best facilitate Americans in their pursuit of happiness.

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Secularists are not going to like this book

Brooks sets out to discover who is happy, and why. The information is likely to surprise you.

For one thing, "Religious people of all faiths are much, much happier than secularists" (p 44). The difference is huge. "Of those who believed there is no way to find out if God exists, a paltry 12% claimed to be very happy people" (p 46). Hmmm...no wonder Dawkins and Hitchens' books drip with unhappiness and malice.

And here's one those famous atheists will really gag on: "Religious individuals today are actually better educated and less ignorant of the world around them than secularists" (p 51).

Married people are happier than those who are single, too. Researchers studied people who seemed alike "but one is married and the other is not, the married person will be 18 percentage points more likely than the unmarried person to say he or she is very happy" (61). This will come a as a blow to the feminists.

Among the nations, North Korea is at the bottom of the happiness scale, with Cuba a close second (p 91). What, atheist communism hasn't brought happiness? Shocker.

On the other hand, mere wealth doesn't help much, once a country has achieved a decent level of health and nutrition. At least the wealth of Japan is not helping. And Mexicans are much happier, on average, than the French.

And here is one I would not have guessed: "For most Americans, job satisfaction is nearly equivalent to life satisfaction. Among those who say they are very happy in their lives, 95% are also satisfied with their jobs" (p 159).

This is a interesting and fun.

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sources of happiness in America

This book was motivated by the fact although "the pursuit of happiness" is enshrined in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, "little has been done ... to find out what actually makes America a happy nation" (front inside of dustcover). The book argues that what make America happy are: political orientation, marriage, income (albeit unequal), giving to charity, and work. These are the subjects of the chapters of the book, divided into parts: "The culture of happiness" and "the economics of happiness." The latter is a misnomer for the "business of happiness."

The first part consists of four chapters and the second includes a few more chapters. While Part I focuses on non-monetary matters like family, religion, and such, Part II is mainly about the connections of happiness to money; how money can sometimes "buy" happiness; and why inequality, no matter how bad, does not prevent individual upward mobility. In the end the book concludes that happiness is a personal and internal condition; if someone wants it, he/she must work full-time for it. Among the chapters of Part II, Chapter 8 on giving to charity as "the secret of buying happiness" is simply the greatest.

The book ends with a list of prescriptions for happiness: avoiding extremism, having a religious faith, having a decent family life, serving and protecting freedom, promoting equality of opportunities for all, celebrating work, giving to charity, respecting the humanity of others including enemies, and limiting government involvement in the business of life. Some of the prescriptions derive beautifully from the analyses of the book, and some appear to be ideological afterthoughts - poorly articulated and perhaps not even necessary. But, hey, why stress the negative when the purpose of writing is to communicate thoughts freely? No one should be penalized for sharing their thoughts. A good read.

Amavilah, Author
Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
ISBN: 1600210465
http://www.amazon.com/Modeling-Income-Determinants-Embedded-Economies/dp/1600210465%3FSubscriptionId%3D1NNRF7QZ418V218YP1R2%26tag%3Dbookfindercom0e%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D1600210465

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Statements In Book

Author makes some statements that children in a marriage will lead to unhappiness. I have two teenage daughters and they do bring unhappiness at time, but this is temporary and there behavior can be corrected, bringing joy again.

Just not sure

Arthur Brooks is to be applauded for writing a book with conclusions based on data. However, he wasn't able to convince me that the methodology for obtaining most of that data is a reliable indicator of happiness. When people are asked "Are you happy?" they may give you an honest or a dishonest answer, but you cannot be sure. Brooks tries to allay this concern by arguing that surveys have replicated the results, but this is still unsatisfactory. If conservatives are more likely to say that they are happy, then this, and only this, is what we can conclude: that conservatives are more likely to say that they are happy. The right question to ask, then, is not, "Why are conservatives happier?" but "Why are conservatives more likely to say they are happier?" The reason could be that they are happier. But you might pose alternative hypotheses. For example, it could be more socially acceptable in America to say that you are happy. Conservatives are more likely to obey this cultural rule. Liberals, atheists, and other cultural rebels may feel freer to break the rule. I'm not proposing this as an actual cause of the results reported in Brooks's book, but the fact that he takes people's responses at face value and doesn't dig deeper is a reason to question those results and is a bit disappointing if you were hoping for a deeper analysis.

I'm one of the readers who suspects Brooks of having a political agenda. The reason isn't simply that he finds that you are more likely to be happy if you are conservative, religious, hard-working, and family-oriented, in addition to living in a society which promotes opportunity but not economic equality, charity rather than government support of the disadvantaged, and limited government. Rather, it is because he focuses on political issues such as these, to the exclusion of other, more benign factors. Does active participation in a sport make people happy? How about owning a pet? Reading novels, shopping, watching TV, going to art museums? How about political activism, foreign travel, great cooking? And what about less benign factors? Does your happiness depend to any extent on what race you are? Why are topics like these missing from this book? By focusing on factors that support the conservative agenda, Brooks does raise suspicions about his motives.

Nonetheless, what is there is interesting, fairly light if not exciting reading, but with a few surprises thrown in.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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