Greeny News

Although it appears that we are programmed to desire, the government can do much to promote the national well-being

appear in the grip of the great expectations that the OECD reported last week, we are still luckier than many of our colleagues in the rich world, do not worry about the crisis imminent financial. Perhaps, we hope to avoid the disappointment of their income decreases abruptly, long-term underemployment and lack of global relevance. Unfortunately, we shall be relieved of such a happy delirium.

This suggests the central question in an age of austerity: what will make us happy? In the West, the answer is not more money. Beyond a certain level of national income, richer does not make people happy in the long run - a phenomenon known as the Easterlin paradox

However, the financial crisis means that Western countries are faced with a relative economic decline. This is important politically because we are programmed to desire. People measure their satisfaction with the way you do compared to others, rather than absolute levels of income. Success is not enough: we want to do better than our peers

The result is people compete in costly "arms race", knowing that if they do not work hard, they will lose their place on the ladder of life to someone who does . The problem in politics today can not all be winners, which leads to an increased dissatisfaction. Before the crisis of Western society have sought to improve by promoting large-scale retail therapy. But such individualism consumer-driven, debt-fueled, got us into this mess.

In a recent conference of Andrew Oswald of Warwick University said, if the streets of the city with smog pollution least 34% is like giving the public a salary increase 20% in terms of well-being. Using a similar analysis can understand why David Cameron and Blue Labour is so keen to charity: the emotional recovery of volunteers is greater than the joy of seeing a revenue increase of 500%