Link Banana

There is now greater equality of happiness in America than there was in the 1970s. Eduardo Porter considers why:

Still, it is not surprising that happiness among blacks rose in the years after the civil rights law outlawed segregation and discrimination on the basis of race. Mr. Wolfers speculates that the gay-straight happiness gap is also likely to have declined over the period, for similar reasons. Changes in family life might also help. Married people are happier than unmarried people, on average. Still, later marriages and more divorces might have winnowed out the unhappiest marriages. And while the shift to two-earner families brings to mind the stressful rush from work to pick the kid up at day care, it also has empowered unhappy stay-at-home moms.

Arther C. Brooks doing a series of posts at the Freakonomics blog on the topic. And though I wouldn’t necessarily vouch for this analysis (or the others he’s offering), I do think it’s interesting:

Conservatives think the world is fairer than liberals do, and this makes them happy:

If you believe that people generally get from life what they deserve to get, and if you belong to the majority who are doing fairly well (employed and healthy, for example), you will probably be more satisfied with life than an equally fortunate person who believes that there is much stubborn unfairness in the world.

In other words, that liberal you know who drives a Beemer isn’t very happy about it because he feels guilty.

As Justin Wolfers explains the Easterlin paradox has long baffled happiness researchers. It’s components:

1. Within a society, rich people tend to be much happier than poor people.
2. But, rich societies tend not to be happier than poor societies (or not by much).
3. As countries get richer, they do not get happier.

The trouble is, new data — collected by Betsey Stevenson and himself — suggests that these observations are, well, wrong, and should be replaced by these:

1. Rich people are happier than poor people.
2. Richer countries are happier than poorer countries.
3. As countries get richer, they tend to get happier.

His post links to more information (mostly PDFs) on the topic, as well as this illistrative chart.

I’ve been waiting for this book to get a good critique, and finally Garrison Keillor offers it:

It’s only right that the tide of inspirational books should yield to the occasional depressional one — for every humorist, a dishumorist, a man who runs his nails down the blackboard and makes everyone’s hair stand up, though we humorists would note that you have to work hard to get a laugh and that dishumor is tyrannical: you need only say out loud, “How can you people stand around here and enjoy yourselves while the world is falling apart?” and all conversation ends. The dishumorist brings a long face to the party and you are forced to ask, “What’s wrong?” And he whispers: “These are ominous times. I sense disaster. I wake up feeling paranoid. The sun was ghostly today. And now fear agitates the darkness.” O.K., pal. Thanks for sharing.

The always-nerdy (but nonetheless great) Bloggingheads.tv has a great discussion of happiness between Will Wilkerson and Eric Weiner, the author of the recent The Geography of Bliss. As someone who’s done a fair bit of reading about happiness, I was presently surprised by how much I learned.

The 14th Dalai Lama won the Nobel Prize in 1989. And though that’s hardly news, the speech which I just found (while working on this) is definately worth reading today:

I accept the prize with profound gratitude on behalf of the oppressed everywhere and for all those who struggle for freedom and work for world peace. I accept it as a tribute to the man who founded the modern tradition of non-violent action for change Mahatma Gandhi whose life taught and inspired me. And, of course, I accept it on behalf of the six million Tibetan people, my brave countrymen and women inside Tibet, who have suffered and continue to suffer so much. They confront a calculated and systematic strategy aimed at the destruction of their national and cultural identities. The prize reaffirms our conviction that with truth, courage and determination as our weapons, Tibet will be liberated.

No matter what part of the world we come from, we are all basically the same human beings. We all seek happiness and try to avoid suffering. We have the same basic human needs and is concerns. All of us human beings want freedom and the right to determine our own destiny as individuals and as peoples. That is human nature. The great changes that are taking place everywhere in the world, from Eastern Europe to Africa are a clear indication of this.