16 The Origins of Happiness
What matters to people must be the guideline for our
policies.— Chancellor Angela Merkel (2015)So is Angela Merkel right? And is it not time for a funda-
mental revolution in human thought? Surely the ultimate
aim of human endeavor must be to produce flourishing
communities of people who are profoundly satisfied with
their lives. It cannot be simply the creation of wealth. If peo-
ple say “We can’t do this because it’s bad for the economy,”
do we say “Well of course we can’t.” Or do we say “Well who
actually is the economy? Let us see, instead, whose quality of
life is affected and by how much?”
Until recently this approach has not been easy to im-
plement: the knowledge has just not been there. But there
is now enough knowledge to shift to the new paradigm.
This knowledge has been accumulating over the last thirty
years, but in a fragmented way, with many different mea-
sures of happiness being used, and one influence being
examined after another in isolation. This book is different.
We use only one single overarching measure of happiness:
life- satisfaction for adults, and emotional well- being for
children. And we look at all possible influences simultane-
ously, so that we can properly compare their influence on
happiness.
What we have found is so striking that it calls for a total
rethink of the priorities for our society. For it turns out that