Chapter 8It is crucial that minorities are treated as equals, so that
they have the same sense of belonging as other citizens.
Racial tolerance has improved in many countries in recent
years, leading to increased happiness in minority groups.^21
But the current upsurge of migration is creating new
stresses, for migrants and for natives. It is key for the happi-
ness of all that the circle of sympathy is extended as widely
as possible.^22
Personal Freedom
Closely related to tolerance is the issue of freedom— the
willingness of society to let people lead their lives as they
wish, provided they do no harm to others.^23 We are not
talking here about the organization of government (the
next topic) nor about economics, but about the freedom
of individuals in their daily lives to choose their own way
of life. This includes, for example, the freedom to marry
who you want to, to choose where to live, and to speak your
mind.^24 More freedom is always better, other things equal.
But in practice more freedom may sometimes mean less
social cohesion. There is therefore a balance to be struck.
But Figure 8.1 shows clearly the importance of freedom in
peoples’ lives. This helps to explain why so many of the least
happy societies documented in the early 1990s were those
in the former Soviet bloc (see Figure 8.2). It is not easy to
be sure how much of this stemmed from the pains of tran-
sition. But we have pretransition data for Hungary and for
one district in Russia (the Tambov district) that show that
happiness was much lower in both places than in other re-
gions with equal levels of GDP per head.^25