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Can happiness be determined by political policy?
A british politician recently argued that a government’s focus should not just be on Gross Domestic Product (or the economy) but also on General Well Being (e.g. health and happiness)!
If you’re interested in reading the full article just click here.
But can we legislate for something like happiness?
To be honest, I’m not really sure…but only because noone’s ever really tried before. Governments create legislation for a range of other things they think are important and/or in the general good. Specific behaviours, for example, are deemed illegal. Specific products (such as cigarettes) are deemed unhealthy. So why shouldn’t certain behaviours that lead to unhappiness (which is not in anyone’s interests) be defined in some way as “socially unacceptable”?
Any thoughts?
This entry was posted
on Monday, May 29th, 2006 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Happiness News.
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June 1st, 2006 at 10:49 am
The minute that the government can do what it’currently got on it’s plate properly - then it’s time to introduce other things. Until then, they should leave it up to the specialists to bring topics up for discussion.
A lot of behaviours ARE already deemed unacceptable - hence they are made illegal. Then again some are made illegal when there’s nothing wrong with them.
You can’t legislate on anything are wideranging and subjective as happiness. Never can and never will.