New at Reason

David Weigel | July 26, 2006

Megan McArdle reveals the not-so dirty truth of why rich countries are happy countries.

Comments

|7.26.06 @ 3:05PM|#

they could have written the book on the culture of chimpazees and come up with the same results. Sorry guys, but whether theres a supreme being that created us or not, we're definitely on the same basic level as all of the other creatures in terms of actions under stress.

|7.26.06 @ 3:11PM|#

At the risk of being burned at the stake I might also offer that perhaps morality creates wealth.

All wealth comes from cooperation. Investment and trade are cooperative acts and it is from such activities that real wealth comes from. Most moral codes boil down to systems for fostering cooperation. Groups with moral precepts that induce wider spheres of cooperation will be better able to take advantage of the advantages of specialization, trade from afar and the sharing of surplus resources(capital)

Dan T.|7.26.06 @ 4:50PM|#

It's worth noting, I think, that while the USA might be the richest country in the world, we are not the happiest, nor the healthiest, nor the least violent, nor the most free, nor the most tolerant it seems.

|7.26.06 @ 5:58PM|#

Dan T:

I'm not sure which country you are using for a metric, but I'm curious what you suppose would happen in said country if the benefits of the US persuit of wealth were wholly internalized?

Larry A|7.26.06 @ 6:15PM|#

Americans are less than 5 percent of the global population yet consume 25 percent of its output,

It would be interesting to know what percent of the world's output is put out by the 5 percent.

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|7.26.06 @ 6:45PM|#

But nations can and do increase the size of the economic pie, allowing everyone to get a bigger piece even if their proportions stay the same, or even shrink.

But as Richard Layard argues, it's relative wealth that matters. I take electricity for granted. I would miss it if it's cut, but I don't appreciate it when it is provided. Similarly, the fact that the postal worker enjoys features ("objectively better off") which were luxuries a century ago, is immaterial, unless you can convince him to be satiated by basking in superiority over the past.

|7.26.06 @ 7:42PM|#

>Americans are less than 5 percent of the global population yet consume 25 percent of its output,

>>It would be interesting to know what percent of the world's output is put out by the 5 percent.

Seems like an excellent question to me.

|7.26.06 @ 7:57PM|#

The U.S. presently accounts for about 29% of the world's GDP. That number's down from a peak level of about 40% during the '50s, but is up from a trough level of roughly 22% in the early '80s.

|7.26.06 @ 8:54PM|#

I checked this out of the library today based on this review. I really enjoyed David Landes' "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations" and this sounds very similar.

|7.27.06 @ 1:24AM|#

Interesting assertion but I'm not sure the link between happiness and wealth is so strong. How is happiness measured, for one thing? I've lived in the U.S. and in a number of poorer countries as well, such as Argentina, Costa Rica, and Thailand. I realize this is purely my own observation but my perception is that in general Americans are not as happy, and definitely they are more stressed, as people in those other countries.

|7.27.06 @ 9:10AM|#

"I was born broke, so I want to live like a millionaire and die poor; I don't want to live poor and die a millionaire."

-Juan "Chi Chi" Rodriguez