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'And yet, there are cases in which the distinction between financial and emotional prosperity makes a big difference — namely, periods of high unemployment.
One overwhelming result of happiness research is that having a job matters a lot, much more than you might have expected just from the income involved. Well, duh, you may say — and it’s true that anyone who has ever spent time unemployed, or knows anyone who has been unemployed, knows that the blow to self-esteem is far greater than the mere financial loss.
(...)
The irony, of course, is that Cameron is pushing happiness economics even as he pursues an austerity program that will lead to a great deal of misery, above and beyond the lost GDP.'

...Stimulating Happiness by Paul Krugman, NY Times


Undeterred, Prime Minister David Cameron has decided to create a national happiness index providing quarterly measures of how folks feel.
His foray into “happynomics” has prompted a deluge of criticism — “woolly-headed distraction” was a mild commentary — at a time when Brits face a year of cuts in everything from public-sector jobs to child benefits.
The consensus seems to be that Cameron is going touchy-feely because in reality he’s wielding an ax.
(...)
British A.T.M.s, for example, would automatically give customers an option of donating to charity. It’s a tough sell in a grim economy, but it captures a need among dislocated people to connect more.

...The Happynomics of Life by Roger Cohen