Money really cannot buy you happiness....

According to the Office for National statistics and their annual review, Money really cannot buy happiness.

Among its comprehensive reports on anything from what we Brits eat,buy and enjoy to how many sexual partners we have had, it suggests that despite the average Briton's salary doubling in the last 30 years, we are no 'Happier' - citing only 86 percent of us claiming to be either satisified or very satisified with our lives - the same figure as 30 years ago.

Perhaps most worrying, the survey posits that "only half of 16-21 year olds feel happy with their prospects for the future"

The first thing I found myself asking was what exactly constituted happiness; in this survey it seems to be overall contentment. Is happiness not something more? something harder to quantify?

Source: The Independent, Wednesday 9th April 2008, pg.12

So much for happiness?

Now - many of you will have heard me deride the notion that happiness is the goal of all life, especially moral decisions. Maybe I have overstated this at times - but a piece HERE takes issue with the slew of new books telling us how to be happy.

Even if it is a worthy goal - can we teach people to be happy?
Dave