The New York Times has an interesting article on Happiness Studies today. I thought it was pretty interesting, despite my skepticism of almost anything that has to do with happiness studies. The article does a good job at pointing out some of the flaws and inconsistencies of basing a social and economic theory on the maximization of such a subjective and dubious psychological state. I sometimes laugh at the thought that one day, instead of complaining about income inequality, we might be talking about happiness inequality. Democrats will argue that happiness is concentrated in the top 1% of the population and needs to be redistributed more equitably, while Republicans will say that that those who don't have a lot of happiness obviously didn't work hard enough to get it. Then the poor, unhappy immigrants who come to our country will be deplored for bringing down the average happiness of our country, despite the overall gains of happiness to them.
Sounds a bit crazy...
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