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About a week ago I posed the question ‘To what degree should governments work to raise our happiness?’ which was perhaps poorly worded, I think ‘To what degree should governments encourage happiness?’ might be a better choice.

Now I know government policy (even if it is on happiness) might sound really tedious and I’m sure a few of you are yawning already, but you know that saying about God, ‘You might not believe in God, but God believes in you’? Well its a lot like that.

You might not care about government policy, but government policy cares about you.

Anyway, I found this really great article written by Ryan Blitstein called Should the Government Make us Happy? It’s long, very long actually, but well written if you’re interested in reading it. And if not, I copy and pasted a few choice passages that I think sum it up nicely. Enjoy!

Tim Kasser wants to be happy. If you live in America, odds are, so do you.

There’s a crucial difference between you and Kasser, though. After two decades of poring over and contributing to academic research on what makes people happy or unhappy, anxious or depressed, Kasser can predict what’s likely to keep him content and what isn’t. He makes life choices based on those studies; he thinks if you did the same, you might end up happier. And he thinks it’s time the government helps you get happy.

Apparently I’m not the only one out there who makes life choices based on academic research. Now here’s the interesting bits about happiness policy in the US:

Several cities, including Boston, keep track of well-being indicators on frequent contributors to happiness, such as civic engagement and commuting times. Nonprofits like the Templeton Foundation have funded positive psychology research, and corporations, including the clothing retailer Patagonia, have brought in happiness researchers as advisers to help boost performance. Many companies, Microsoft among them, have tried to increase worker efficiency by getting employees into “flow,” the condition of intense happiness, focus and productivity studied by positive psychology researcher Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. The Center for a New American Dream, a Washington, D.C. organization focused on such issues as sustainable consumption, is in discussions with the New Economics Foundation about integrating happiness into its advocacy programs.

Still, there is no real U.S. hub for happiness policy.

“Most of the people I know are an issue away from happiness,” Kasser said in a telephone interview. “They’re pushing on things I think could potentially increase happiness but not taking happiness as the main mover.” To Kasser, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Though most Americans want to be happy, he’s well aware of their aversion to a Big Brother figure mandating policies to increase personal happiness.

“I don’t believe governments can make people happy, but I do believe governments can remove institutions which make it difficult for people to pursue happiness,” he says.

I think that’s a really great way to look at it. We shouldn’t expect government to mandate or enforce happiness, but I think it’s important that government gets rid of the things that are making it difficult for us to be happy. For example, shorten the 40 hour workweek so we can spend more time with friends and family, doing the things we love. I know I could live with that.

Further Reading:
- Should the Government Make Us Happy? by by Ryan Blitstein

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