Book Review - The Economics of Happiness

I originally came up with the idea of including book reviews here because I read a lot anyway, and I thought some visitors might find it interesting to pick up a few ideas here and there for other things to read. So far, the books I've written about have been books that I've liked and thought just about anybody could appreciate. Well, now that changes.

The Economics of Happiness by Mark Anielski is one of the least-enjoyable books I've read in quite some time and it was, honestly, a struggle to get through to the end of it.

The book starts out with a solid enough premise - namely, that traditional economic measures like GNP/GDP don't measure everything that matters to us that and it is possible for a nation to get richer and simultaneously less happy. Fine, no argument there.

The author also makes the point that traditional economic metrics fail to properly value (and/or assign costs) things like environmental quality, natural resource depletion, work satisfaction and so forth. Again, no problem there with me - the idea of externalities is hardly new, and it has been a problem that economists have wrestled with for years.

Where things start to go off the rails for me is when the author becomes infatuated with his own notions of what really matters to people and their inclusion in his metrics for national well-being. For instance, I may have missed it, but I didn't see a single point at which he assigned value to the technology advances related to the internet. I, for one, find it enormously life-improving that I can communicate with so many people so quickly and so easily, and that I can find a wealth of information (and entertainment) at my fingertips.

Moreover, the author also seems to suggest that we all will value non-tangible concepts at the same rate. To me, that's just patently false. For instance, I like being outdoors quite a lot - but the value to me of cycling trails is nil, as I don't bike (conversely, those who don't row may see no value in facilities/set-asides that cater to kayakers).

To be fair, I don't disagree with the author's goal/dream of harmonious development, nor do I personally disagree with his outlook that Americans often value "more" simply because it's, well, more. I've quit high-paying jobs in the past because I hated what I did (or who I did it with), and I'm sure others have as well. But I've also known plenty of smart, upstanding people who have decided to stay put and deal with it because they valued the freedoms that the high-paying job would give them down the road. Personally, I don't see a right/wrong there, I see a "do what makes YOU happy" choice instead.

Anyways, die-hard capitalists and free-marketers will probably break out in hives about 50 pages into this book. On the flip side, those who consider themselves progressive and are interested in concepts like sustainable development and the inclusion of less-empirical factors in economic policy may find some intriguing concepts here.

All in all, though, I'd give it a pass.