|
Happiness: Lessons from a New Science (Second Edition)
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Happiness: Lessons from a New Science for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
|
There is a newer edition of this item:
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
Unorthodox, devastatingly straightforward and more provocative of actual thought than 90% of books said to be "thought-provoking". If happiness isn't a political issue, what's the point of politics? (Andrew Marr )
A remarkable book ... which effectively trashes the claim of economics to guide policy for a good society ... read it, and take heart (Simon Caulkin Observer )
Fascinating ... argues that we should make happiness, not growth, the object of our economic policies (John Kay Financial Times ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
A remarkable book ... which effectively trashes the claim of economics to guide policy for a good society ... read it, and take heart (Simon Caulkin Observer )
Fascinating ... argues that we should make happiness, not growth, the object of our economic policies (John Kay Financial Times ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Product Description
In this landmark book, Richard Layard shows that there is a paradox at the heart of our lives. Most people want more income. Yet as societies become richer, they do not become happier. This is not just anecdotally true, it is the story told by countless pieces of scientific research. We now have sophisticated ways of measuring how happy people are, and all the evidence shows that on average people have grown no happier in the last fifty years, even as average incomes have more than doubled. In fact, the First World has more depression, more alcoholism and more crime than fifty years ago. This paradox is true of Britain, the United States, continental Europe, and Japan. What is going on?
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
There is a paradox at the heart of our lives. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
There is a paradox at the heart of our lives. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very readable introduction to an important new science,
By
This review is from: Happiness: Lessons from a New Science (Paperback)
This book makes a compelling and accessible case that the new science of happiness is very relevant to how we shape our society. Layard is an economist by education and argues that his own profession has been complacent in almost unthinkingly using consumption as a practical approximation of happiness. The policy recommendations that result have made us richer, but often not happier. Layard says that it is now possible to measure happiness and thus there is no excuse not to tailor policies to achieve the goal of making society happier. In a very readable fashion he connects recent research on what makes people happy (things like stable families, socially integrated neighbourhoods and low unemployment) to some possible policies. Although one may not agree with some of his recommendations the book is refreshing in its approach. As a result I feel that all my fellow economists should read this to get a new perspective on our profession. Politicians and voters should also read it for new insights on how we should shape our society.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything you ever wanted to know about Happiness,
By Martin Akiyama (Slough) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Happiness: Lessons from a New Science (Hardcover)
I think this was the book that started the current trendiness of Happiness. Despite being fairly short it covers everything you could possibly want to know, and has a bibliography and internet links for anyone wanting to know more about any particular topic.
It is an important book because in some ways the modern world is making people more and more unhappy. But it doesn't have to be that way. The author offers suggestions, backed by solid evidence, for political and economic reforms and also for personally achieving greater happiness.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I don't care too much for money...,
By
This review is from: Happiness: Lessons from a New Science (Hardcover)
... Money can't buy me love, or it would seem happiness, if the statistics on depression and anxiety in the modern western world compared with the 1950s are to be believed. This book is about the paradox of market economics - we pursue ever greater productivity, flexibility and trade, and our material wealth piles up - yet we do not seem to get happier. Indeed, the things that make us happy - friends, family, love, community - are not things that we trade, and modern economies tend to atomise us into consumers, living far from our families and barely knowing our neighbours.Professor Layard's strength in adressing this subject is that he comes from a hard-edged economics backgroud. There is no woolyness here, no hostility towards success. Instead, there is a rational effort to focus on happiness as the correct priority for public policy - including economic policy. Facinating, but unfortunatly the prognosis is a great deal clearer than the cure. Truely thought provoking, even it some of those thoughts are "well we really have messed it all up."
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
