The ultimate objective of the form and actions of government should be to improve our quality of life, sense of well being, or in a word - happiness. They have come to a number of unsurprising, but also very surprising conclusions. Being sick is a real downer.
Ill health has the biggest single negative impact on happiness.
This is followed by unemployment. The amount of the reduction in disposable income seems to have very little effect. The raw fact of being unemployed is the big minus. Women are happier than men, married men and women happier than singles, younger and older people are happier than those in their 30s, and the happiest professions are self-employed, housewife, and retired. After taking into account all these factors and more, there were still large differences in the happiness enjoyed in the individual cantons.