There Is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch!
Who Is Paying for Our Happiness?
Lars Carlsen
1 Introduction
In a report published by the Danish Ministry of Environment (HRI 2012) it is stated
that “it is no longer possible to imagine a future where the pursuit of happiness is not
somehow connected to sustainability. As the human species continues its quest for
happiness and well-being, more emphasis must be placed on sustainability and the
interaction between sustainability and happiness” and further “there is a growing
awareness of how sustainability and happiness can go hand-in-hand”. However,
the term happiness is not uniquely defined and a somewhat broad definition could
be “the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a
sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile” (Lyubomirsky 2008). A
more well-defined and structured index for happiness has been reported based on
seven indicators (HI 2016, 2017, 2018):
1. GDP per capita is in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (GPD)
2. Social support (or having someone to count on in times of trouble) (SocSup)
3. The time series of healthy life expectancy at birth (LifeExp)
4. Freedom to make life choices (FreeCho)
5. Generosity (Gener)
6. Perceptions of corruption (PerCor)
7. The country’s own perception of doing better or worse than the hypothetical
country Dystopia (Dys)
In a recent study, comprising the 157 countries included in the World Happiness
Index study (HI 2016) these indicators were analyzed (Carlsen 2018) applying
L. Carlsen ()
Awareness Center, Roskilde, Denmark
e-mail: lc@awarenesscenter.dk
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Bruggemann et al. (eds.), Measuring and Understanding Complex Phenomena,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59683-5_14
205
Who Is Paying for Our Happiness?
Lars Carlsen
1 Introduction
In a report published by the Danish Ministry of Environment (HRI 2012) it is stated
that “it is no longer possible to imagine a future where the pursuit of happiness is not
somehow connected to sustainability. As the human species continues its quest for
happiness and well-being, more emphasis must be placed on sustainability and the
interaction between sustainability and happiness” and further “there is a growing
awareness of how sustainability and happiness can go hand-in-hand”. However,
the term happiness is not uniquely defined and a somewhat broad definition could
be “the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a
sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile” (Lyubomirsky 2008). A
more well-defined and structured index for happiness has been reported based on
seven indicators (HI 2016, 2017, 2018):
1. GDP per capita is in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (GPD)
2. Social support (or having someone to count on in times of trouble) (SocSup)
3. The time series of healthy life expectancy at birth (LifeExp)
4. Freedom to make life choices (FreeCho)
5. Generosity (Gener)
6. Perceptions of corruption (PerCor)
7. The country’s own perception of doing better or worse than the hypothetical
country Dystopia (Dys)
In a recent study, comprising the 157 countries included in the World Happiness
Index study (HI 2016) these indicators were analyzed (Carlsen 2018) applying
L. Carlsen ()
Awareness Center, Roskilde, Denmark
e-mail: lc@awarenesscenter.dk
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Bruggemann et al. (eds.), Measuring and Understanding Complex Phenomena,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59683-5_14
205