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Title: Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America--and How We Can Get More of It
ISBN: 0465002781
Author:
Arthur C. Brooks
Publicate Date: 2008-04-21
Publish: 2008-04-21
List Price: $26.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $4.00
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $4.90
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Pathetic Example of Research and the Scientific Method
I have read 'Gross National Happiness and I am very disillusioned with it. The first few chapters provided some insights but after that it digressed into cherry picking of data and, what I believe is stretching the facts with misrepresentations and misinterpretations of the data, all to foster the author's conservative beliefs. It is really pathetic from a scientific point of view. When I finished, I was totally disgusted.
The author is supposed to be an academic (even an economist) and claims the book is research. But it is a polemic, in my view. He refers to "averages" when the distributions are clearly non-Gaussian (such as the distribution of income) so he should be using medians - "averages" is not a statistical definition - he should define it as a mean or median but I assume he uses means as they help to make his argument. He uses regression to argue causality when all it shows is a relationship (that may well be spurious). And he jumps back and forth between "findings", beliefs, personal views and "conclusions" - many of which do not logically follow.
I do not recommend this book. If I could, I would have given it zero stars.
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2: sources of happiness in America
This book was motivated by the fact although "the pursuit of happiness" is enshrined in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, "little has been done ... to find out what actually makes America a happy nation" (front inside of dustcover). The book argues that what make America happy are: political orientation, marriage, income (albeit unequal), giving to charity, and work. These are the subjects of the chapters of the book, divided into parts: "The culture of happiness" and "the economics of happiness." The latter is a misnomer for the "business of happiness."
The first part consists of four chapters and the second includes a few more chapters. While Part I focuses on non-monetary matters like family, religion, and such, Part II is mainly about the connections of happiness to money; how money can sometimes "buy" happiness; and why inequality, no matter how bad, does not prevent individual upward mobility. In the end the book concludes that happiness is a personal and internal condition; if someone wants it, he/she must work full-time for it. Among the chapters of Part II, Chapter 8 on giving to charity as "the secret of buying happiness" is simply the greatest.
The book ends with a list of prescriptions for happiness: avoiding extremism, having a religious faith, having a decent family life, serving and protecting freedom, promoting equality of opportunities for all, celebrating work, giving to charity, respecting the humanity of others including enemies, and limiting government involvement in the business of life. Some of the prescriptions derive beautifully from the analyses of the book, and some appear to be ideological afterthoughts - poorly articulated and perhaps not even necessary. But, hey, why stress the negative when the purpose of writing is to communicate thoughts freely? No one should be penalized for sharing their thoughts. A good read.
Amavilah, Author
Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
ISBN: 1600210465
http://www.amazon.com/Modeling-Income-Determinants-Embedded-Economies/dp/1600210465%3FSubscriptionId%3D1NNRF7QZ418V218YP1R2%26tag%3Dbookfindercom0e%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D1600210465
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3: Just not sure
Arthur Brooks is to be applauded for writing a book with conclusions based on data. However, he wasn't able to convince me that the methodology for obtaining most of that data is a reliable indicator of happiness. When people are asked "Are you happy?" they may give you an honest or a dishonest answer, but you cannot be sure. Brooks tries to allay this concern by arguing that surveys have replicated the results, but this is still unsatisfactory. If conservatives are more likely to say that they are happy, then this, and only this, is what we can conclude: that conservatives are more likely to say that they are happy. The right question to ask, then, is not, "Why are conservatives happier?" but "Why are conservatives more likely to say they are happier?" The reason could be that they are happier. But you might pose alternative hypotheses. For example, it could be more socially acceptable in America to say that you are happy. Conservatives are more likely to obey this cultural rule. Liberals, atheists, and other cultural rebels may feel freer to break the rule. I'm not proposing this as an actual cause of the results reported in Brooks's book, but the fact that he takes people's responses at face value and doesn't dig deeper is a reason to question those results and is a bit disappointing if you were hoping for a deeper analysis.
I'm one of the readers who suspects Brooks of having a political agenda. The reason isn't simply that he finds that you are more likely to be happy if you are conservative, religious, hard-working, and family-oriented, in addition to living in a society which promotes opportunity but not economic equality, charity rather than government support of the disadvantaged, and limited government. Rather, it is because he focuses on political issues such as these, to the exclusion of other, more benign factors. Does active participation in a sport make people happy? How about owning a pet? Reading novels, shopping, watching TV, going to art museums? How about political activism, foreign travel, great cooking? And what about less benign factors? Does your happiness depend to any extent on what race you are? Why are topics like these missing from this book? By focusing on factors that support the conservative agenda, Brooks does raise suspicions about his motives.
Nonetheless, what is there is interesting, fairly light if not exciting reading, but with a few surprises thrown in.
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4: Secularists are not going to like this book
Brooks sets out to discover who is happy, and why. The information is likely to surprise you.
For one thing, "Religious people of all faiths are much, much happier than secularists" (p 44). The difference is huge. "Of those who believed there is no way to find out if God exists, a paltry 12% claimed to be very happy people" (p 46). Hmmm...no wonder Dawkins and Hitchens' books drip with unhappiness and malice.
And here's one those famous atheists will really gag on: "Religious individuals today are actually better educated and less ignorant of the world around them than secularists" (p 51).
Married people are happier than those who are single, too. Researchers studied people who seemed alike "but one is married and the other is not, the married person will be 18 percentage points more likely than the unmarried person to say he or she is very happy" (61). This will come a as a blow to the feminists.
Among the nations, North Korea is at the bottom of the happiness scale, with Cuba a close second (p 91). What, atheist communism hasn't brought happiness? Shocker.
On the other hand, mere wealth doesn't help much, once a country has achieved a decent level of health and nutrition. At least the wealth of Japan is not helping. And Mexicans are much happier, on average, than the French.
And here is one I would not have guessed: "For most Americans, job satisfaction is nearly equivalent to life satisfaction. Among those who say they are very happy in their lives, 95% are also satisfied with their jobs" (p 159).
This is a interesting and fun.
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5: Statements In Book
Author makes some statements that children in a marriage will lead to unhappiness. I have two teenage daughters and they do bring unhappiness at time, but this is temporary and there behavior can be corrected, bringing joy again.
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