Review: Keep your laws off my happiness
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 09 22, 2012
This manifesto offers a set of five suggestions for individuals to increase their happiness and a set of seven suggestions for governments to increase the happiness of their citizens.The first set of suggestions have a common theme: a variety of activities that make many people happier.  However, there is a trade-off here: if a person wants to spend more time connecting, gardening, exercising, taking notice, and learning, they will have to spend less time on expensive consumption such as travel and living in expensive areas of the world.  There's a case to be made for downshifting, but this manifesto avoids confronting the hard choices.This manifesto also leaves out the role of religion in a happy life.  That is an enormous factor.  One can argue against it, but this manifesto just plain omits any discussion of it.  Similarly, having a family is the most powerful source of happiness for many adults, but this work mentions family life only in passing.The second set of suggestions also has a common theme: increase the power and scope of government.  I'm sure this will make one set of people very happy: the government planners.This is a Kindle Single, so it's short (good).  However, after filtering out the glib TED-talk, it's a bit too short.  I'll take a nice slow book such as Walden instead.