Happiness Around the World: The paradox of happy peasants and miserable millionaires Hardcover – 17 Dec 2009

Last weekend when tidying behind my desk, I came across this book. And because I had left the amazon receipt in the book, I knew when I had ordered and had an idea why. And as soon I started reading it (again) and discovered my marginal notes, I understood why, despite my initial interest, I hadn't gotten past page 7.

So, I decided to give it another try and while I appreciated Carol Graham's diligence, I found the book incredibly dry, While she was able to establish the paradox which she defines in the subhead, that of "happy peasants and miserable millionaires," she only offered limited insight into why many poor people are happy and why some rich people are miserable.

And perhaps that was not the point of the book. She is after all a Professor of Public Policy and not a psychologist, anthropologist or philosopher.

She does at least provide numerous notions which allow the reader to think deeper on the topic, talking about how we "adapt" to different situations, making it possible for some to find happiness while living in crime-infested neighborhoods. And we learn that some "stigmata" are easier to bear if we are not the only ones bearing them. This gives new meaning to the old expression about misery loving company. That company often makes us less miserable as we are able to share our misfortunes with others similarly situated.

And then there is the issue of expectations. With rising expectations, we may become frustrated if we do not realize our goals. She also mentions uncertainty as a cause for unhappiness. People are less happy during economic crises than in period of stability and/or growth.

Graham devotes more time to discussing metrology that to illustrating the various concepts she addresses. Her books suffers from an absence of anecdote. She details the results of survey data, discussing this coefficient and that equation based on this "categorial variable," but never lets us hear what the citizens surveyed said, how they understood what happiness means.

To be sure, she does acknowledge the limitations of her exercise: "In a more complex conceptual sense, understanding the relative weights influence of different variables on reported well-being is part of the complex exercise of defining and measuring quality of life."

But, to truly understand happiness and the paradox in the subtitle which drew me to the book, we could all benefit from individual stories. I ordered this book in February 2010 when I was working on my doctoral dissertation --while blogging regularly. And I recall feeling very alive at that point in my life. I was happy.

Could it be then that there in a link between rewarding work and peace of mind? Perhaps that is the topic for another book. And perhaps it is not a public policy professional's place to address such things.

Sometimes it seems what we think might make us miserable may actually make us happy.

No wonder her subtitle drew me in. Just as we assume that lazing around might make us happy, we may also assume that wealth would have a similar effect. So, despite the plethora of statistics, charts and surveys referenced in this book, Carol Graham does raise some important issues about the nature of happiness. Poverty does not necessarily make you miserable, just as wealth does not necessarily make you happy.

And hard work, though many complain about it, may well also lead to happiness.

I found this book cited in a couple of other things I've been reading lately, so I thought I would go right to the source. But basically it seemed to be a survey about happiness survey. I should've just been satisfied with the citations.

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Consider these eight questions:

(1) What makes people happy?
(2) Does more money make you happy?
(3) If money does not make people happy, what does?
(4) Where and how does the average person find happiness?
(5) Is there consistency in the determinants of happiness across countries and cultures?
(6) Are happiness levels innate to individuals or can policy and the environment people live in make a difference?
(7) How is happiness affected by poverty or progress?
(8) Is happiness a viable objective for public policy?

These are some of the questions answered in this book by Carol Graham. Graham is Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution (a public policy think tank located in Washington that conducts research in the social sciences) and professor at the University of Maryland. She also is the author of many books and articles on poverty, inequality, and novel measures of well-being.

The first chapter reviews the theory and concepts of happiness and how they have evolved historically. The next chapter looks into the relationship between happiness and income while the third chapter reviews the correlates of happiness in large population samples around the world (in countries such as Chile, Kazakhstan, Peru,, Russia, the United States, and Afghanistan).

The fourth chapter examines how happiness matters to outcomes that we care about (such as health and employment). Chapter five is devoted to health (said to be one of the most important variables in the happiness equation). The sixth chapter presents what we know about the effects of macroeconomics trends (such as economic growth, inequality, inflation, and unemployment) on happiness while chapter seven explores the role of different institutional arrangements (such as political regimes, social networks, crime) on happiness.

The final chapter of this book discusses the potential of happiness surveys to contribute to better public policy.

This is the first in-depth study of happiness which crosses many countries and regions, including developed and developing countries.

Many of the chapters have a "conclusions" or summary section. I found these most beneficial.

Note that this is a very scholarly book that examines the concept of happiness seriously. Thus, it is filled with graphs and tables.

Finally, I particularly enjoyed the quotations that headed many of the chapters. For example:

(1) "Will increasing the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?" (Richard Easterlin)
(2) "When I sell liquor, it's called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake Shore Drive, it's called hospitality." (Al Capone)

In conclusion, I found that I learned surprisingly much about happiness "around the world" after reading this book. Like me, you'll probably be happy that you read this book (and perhaps even more happy that you read my review of it)!!!

(first published 2009; preface; lists of figures and tables; abbreviations; introduction; 8 chapters; main narrative 230 pages; references; index)

<<Stephen Pletko, London, Ontario, Canada>>

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Money can't buy happiness, or so your parents used to say. But if money doesn't make you joyful, what does? In her astute, rigorously researched book, public policy scholar Carol Graham evaluates the components of happiness across countries, socioeconomic groups and cultures to tease out what "well-being" means, at least statistically speaking. Using extensive surveys in Latin America, Central Asia and Afghanistan, and existing data on happiness in the developed world, Graham posits that, despite varying levels of wealth, people and nations share fundamentally similar characteristics when it comes to being content. She examines how happiness measures can guide policy makers and notes the pitfalls involved. Be prepared, though, to brush up on your statistics and get reacquainted with z-scores and Gini coefficients. The book relies heavily on statistical analysis and calculations, but Graham manages to surface from the data occasionally to provide conclusions in lay language. getAbstract finds her work of value to economists, psychologists, policy makers and all those who just want to get happy.

I agree with Chungking that this book is not for the layperson, nor is it a how-to or feel-good self help book. However, I think it is great that social scientists are actually researching a kind of "bottom line" which is other than one we can see on the international corporatocracy's profit and loss statement. I do wish there had been more research presented on the grand national experiment underway in Bhutan.

With all that said, there does seem to be a certain type of material possession without which happiness is not possible. In The Seeds We Sow, Kindness That Fed A Hungry World The Seeds We Sow, Kindness That Fed A Hungry World Dr. Norman Borlaug is quoted, "You can't build a peaceful world on empty stomach and human misery." It would seem that without enough food, there is likely no happiness.

I am glad Ms. Graham has explored the paradox of happiness and written this book.