Will Wilkinson on happiness

Will Wilkinson, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute in Washington DC and author of the Happiness & Public Policy blog (see link on the left), has an article in the October issue of Prospect (the start of the article is available
“> here ). In it he argues that GDP per head does have a significant impact on happiness over time. He also cites the argument by Benjamin Friedman, a professor of economics at Harvard, that economic growth may be necessary to maintain happiness at a reasonable level (see review link on the left).

To me such arguements are unnecessarily defensive. Economic growth is beneficial whether or not it bolsters happiness. And unhappiness is not necessarily a bad thing – it can be positive if it is an incentive for humans to create a better society.