鈥淟ife, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.鈥� These are three unalienable rights emphasised by the US Declaration of Independence as being the duty of their leaders to protect and secure.
The third one gives perhaps most pause for thought. What should governments 鈥� and all of us 鈥� be doing to maximise societal and personal happiness? Indeed, what even defines happiness?
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Politicans and philosophers have wrangled over the apparent contradictions and conflicts that such questions throw up for centuries. Meanwhile, a simple equivalence has come to be made across the world. Many believe that happiness comes with having a bigger cake and eating it, so only economic growth and the pursuit of material progress can provide happiness.
Having basic material needs such as food, shelter and clothing covered will, of course, always be important to our well-being. Even asking questions about the nature of happiness may imply being in the happy situation of relative prosperity.
Happiness is a 鈥渟quishy concept鈥�, though, as our special feature shows, and care should be taken not to over-interpret results from the relatively young discipline of research on the subject. But in higher-income parts of the world, at least, the greatest levels of satisfaction seem to occur in countries such as Finland with mediocre levels of economic growth. Higher-growth countries such as the US fare worse.
鈥淭he greatest life satisfaction seems to occur in countries with mediocre levels of growth鈥�
You need only look to the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution to see how growth-fuelled economic models can work against long-term happiness. The covid-19 pandemic has also led many people to reassess what really contributes to their well-being.
Security, community, relationships, a clean environment and connection with nature, the ability to bring up children stress-free, and above all equality: these are things that we know correlate with happiness for most of us. Countries that care for their own success should find in that another reason not to blindly continue with business-as-usual, and seek to build back not just better, but happier.
