I wish to share with you these views by an economist on Happiness (FT of Feb 06 2020). Richard Layard, founder and former director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, in his new book “Can We Be Happier?”, examines the new science of happiness and how we can harness it to improve ourselves, our relationships and our societies.
This will , however, require in many countries an overhauling of everything from how we relate to children and partners to the design of our cities and our interactions with technology, work, time and money.
The growing body of research outlined by Layard shows that at an individual level, mental health, relationships and the quality of one’s work are more important than wealth. (Mental, and the importance of actively cultivating it, is a big theme in Layard’s book).
He argues that “once countries reach a basic level of development, economic growth doesn’t make us happy — connection to others and high levels of social trust do.” (For example in our case, trust in our electoral system, trust in our governance, the rule of law and economic management , among others)
Equally important is his persuasive research about why we should reboot education to focus more on psychological wellbeing than academic particulars (for children, being in such a school environment appears to be as beneficial as being in a happy family).
He also recommends new parent groups. His research shows that they have a large and long-term effect on wellbeing, by connecting people in need (what new parent isn’t?). For many people who have raised children the lack of public and private support for parenting can be soul-crushing.
Layard’s book in a sense reinforces our criticism of the present reform of the education system which , besides ignoring recent trends and developments, is not ensuring a holistic development in children in their most formative years, enabling them to imbibe deep-rooted positive values and inculcating healthy practices in a happy, creative, homely and interactive environment.
Drawing below (Courtesy FT)
