It might be common sense that happiness is in the eye of the beholder, but don’t let a little thing like that stand in the way of the Federal Government spending money to try to quantify it. A new study being undertaken by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is dedicated to trying to put a number to the amount of happiness any given person feels. Why the government wants to study topic has not been explained, though presumably, it could be applied to manipulating poll numbers.
One potential reason why the study is being done is due to widespread dissatisfaction among liberal social scientists with the prevailing idea that Gross National Product (GNP), or Gross Domestic Product (GDP), are good approximations for national happiness. The Washington Post, which caught this story, quotes a Robert Kennedy speech on this topic.
“Our gross national product, if we should judge America by that, counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage . . .it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile,” Robert Kennedy said in a 1968 speech.
In other words, GDP is just too objective and economics-focused for HHS, which wants to measure feelings. Certainly President Obama has welcomed the effort, to the point of naming a researcher on the concept of happiness, Alan Krueger, to be Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Read more: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/federal-government-spends-money-trying-to-measure-happiness/
One potential reason why the study is being done is due to widespread dissatisfaction among liberal social scientists with the prevailing idea that Gross National Product (GNP), or Gross Domestic Product (GDP), are good approximations for national happiness. The Washington Post, which caught this story, quotes a Robert Kennedy speech on this topic.
“Our gross national product, if we should judge America by that, counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage . . .it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile,” Robert Kennedy said in a 1968 speech.
In other words, GDP is just too objective and economics-focused for HHS, which wants to measure feelings. Certainly President Obama has welcomed the effort, to the point of naming a researcher on the concept of happiness, Alan Krueger, to be Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Read more: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/federal-government-spends-money-trying-to-measure-happiness/
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