What does “the Pursuit of Happiness” mean?

You may have missed it, but we recently celebrated World Happiness Day.

To celebrate, the United Nations published a study on happiness in most countries in the world.

That may sound like a waste of money, but one of the findings suggests that the study may serve a useful purpose.

The World Happiness Report concluded that “happiness depends on a huge range of influences, many of which can be influenced by government policy.”

The study revealed that if governments want to make their people happier, there’s more involved than making them richer.

The notion that government is somehow responsible for people’s happiness is not as silly as it may sound. 

The Declaration of Independence, America’s revered founding document, proclaimed that one of our basic rights is “the pursuit of happiness.”  Government is created to “secure” this right, it said.

The question is how to define happiness.

Some historians believe that the Founding Fathers saw happiness as economic well-being.  Government’s job would be to help people improve their incomes and wealth.

The U.N. study report is based on surveys involving tens of thousands of people all over the world.  They reveal that, while a person’s economic condition counts, a number of other factors go into making people happy.

Of course, for many, happiness starts with having a job.  Employed people are happier than the jobless.

But income as a measure of happiness is somewhat complicated.  For some people, it is a matter of how much money you have and earn.  Clearly, the poor do not usually rate themselves as being happy.

For others, economic status matters -- having more money than other people.  It may get to the point where people become increasingly unhappy as their neighbors do better.

Either way, unless a person lives in poverty, economic well-being may matter less than a collection of other factors. 

Social relationships are important.  If people believe they can turn to family and friends if they run into difficulties, such relationships contribute to their happiness.

That’s a major reason why people say that religion contributes to their happiness.  It appears that while faith is important, the social links provided by religious groups count even more heavily.

Another factor in happiness is the degree to which people feel free to live as they wish.  In other words, governments range from dictatorships to democracies, and people measure their happiness partly as a function of the form of government.

Connected to this is the degree to which government is considered to be free from corruption.  People are happier if they believe their government is operating by the rules and not to promote the personal enrichment or enhanced power of those in charge or because of the undue influence of forces outside government.

Not surprisingly, the condition of a person’s health influences happiness.  Here, too, government has a role to play, if it assists people to lead healthy lives and to have access to medical care.

People seem also to place some importance on the environment as a factor in their happiness.  They give weight to both their own living conditions and the legacy they leave for their children.  Again, in this area, government matters.

Demographic data from industrialized countries reveals that women are happier than men and that as people age they regain a degree of happiness they may have lost in middle age.

Based on the surveys, the report comes up with a rough ranking of countries.

Those that come out with the highest degree of happiness are among the richest countries.

People in these countries have greater individual wealth with less deep poverty.  They are all democracies.  Their governments have more resources than others to support programs for job creation, income support, health care, and environmental protection.

Who is at the top?  The Scandinavian countries and the major English-speaking former British colonies, including the United States.

Interestingly for Americans, as the country gains in wealth, it has not gained in happiness.  Perhaps that’s because of the way wealth is distributed.  The share of the poor here has not declined.

At the bottom in terms of happiness are mostly poor countries in Africa. 

A country with a low rating may be more likely to create international unrest.  And the crime rate among the poor in many countries is often high.  So it’s in the interest of all to alleviate poverty at home and abroad.

Altruism – helping others without personal gain – was found to be a factor in creating happiness.  Helping the poor may not only be better for all but makes us happier.