Socialists are happier.

[pErvinalia]

At the very least it would make their food pretty boring.

[Brian Peacock]

Happiness is, of course, a subjective thing. I'm not happy that scientist have given me a personal jetpack like I was promised in 1973, but I'm pretty happy that I don't have to fight an old lady for scrapes from the palace bins. Nonetheless, when Kyle Smith focuses on happiness as a personal experience the effect--wholly intentional I think--is to play down the evidence while interposing incredulity about what it actually communicates, which is that lower levels of income equality and a taxation policy which supports social services according to need results in societies with better health outcomes across the board, lower obesity, lower child mortality rates, lower rates of teenage pregnancy, less crime, fewer prisoners, better educational outcomes, higher productivity, higher levels of trust, better economic stability and growth (to name but a few markers off the top of my head), than comparable nations with higher levels of income disparity and fewer community resources.

And btw Ty, if an absence of diversity was the chief marker for national happiness then North Korea and China would be the happiest places on Earth, so characterising whole nations or regions as 'white racists' is, unsurprisingly, rather racist in itself - but then again, you're proud to bear that epithet, so who cares.

[DaveDodo007]

If I was allowed to spend other people's money I would be dilarious to. What a surprise that the people's money you are wasting get pissed off. Get a fucking job you losers.

[laklak]

I'm as happy as a pig in shit.

[Feck]

I kindly gave my job to someone who didn't have one

[pErvinalia]

If I was allowed to spend other people's money I would be dilarious to. What a surprise that the people's money you are wasting get pissed off. Get a fucking job you losers.

Most of those places will have low unemployment as they have stronger economies.

[JimC]

Is dilarious a state of mind which is a combination of being hilarious and delirious?

[Strontium Dog]

A bird in a cage is probably "happier" than a wild bird. It certainly has less to worry about - no need to find food, shelter or a mate; no need to fear predators. Is it better off though? This is the $64,000 question.

[pErvinalia]

If it's happier, who are you or anyone else to say it isn't better off?

[Strontium Dog]

Obviously different folk have different visions for humankind. My vision is not one in which people are satisfied to be kept ignorant and suppressed.

[pErvinalia]

Once again, what business is it of yours how other people feel about their life (in the case of them feeling happy)?

[Tyrannical]

A bird in a cage is probably "happier" than a wild bird. It certainly has less to worry about - no need to find food, shelter or a mate; no need to fear predators. Is it better off though? This is the $64,000 question.

I don't think too many people would be better off in the wild; naked in a jungle (or savanna) with no modern tools or conveniences.

[Rum]

I have always been puzzled by the almost universal fact that older people are happier. If you doubt this here's a link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35471624

I am in that age range now and although many/most of the preoccupations of the young no longer bother me, the prospect of my body slowly ceasing to sustain me and the arrival of a termination of the human experience at some point in the not too distant future are hardly cheery issues with which to live.

Even so I have more - contentment I suppose - if not gleeful manic happiness these days compared to my younger days.

Oh - and I am a socialist!

[Brian Peacock]

Obviously different folk have different visions for humankind. My vision is not one in which people are satisfied to be kept ignorant and suppressed.

Is that what happiness is?

[Brian Peacock]

I have always been puzzled by the almost universal fact that older people are happier. If you doubt this here's a link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35471624

I am in that age range now and although many/most of the preoccupations of the young no longer bother me, the prospect of my body slowly ceasing to sustain me and the arrival of a termination of the human experience at some point in the not too distant future are hardly cheery issues with which to live.

Even so I have more - contentment I suppose - if not gleeful manic happiness these days compared to my younger days.

Oh - and I am a socialist!

Don't give up Rum. You can still open the batting for England against the Windies. You just got to believe, and really want it - 1 million percent.