Richard Layard's Happiness: Worn Philosophy, Weak Psychology, Wrong Method and Just Plain Bad Economics!

Richard Layard believes that he has discovered the roots of happiness. He posits that: those in the West have been duped into playing the zero-sum game of trying to outdo everyone else; that unhappiness is associated with all forms of rivalry; that happiness is located in the socialist ethos; and that pubic policy should be set to inhibit activities that bring extra income without extra happiness. When the salient features of the analysis are examined, they are found to be seriously flawed. Although Layard might be applauded for seeking to broaden the remit of economics, a narrow utilitarian preoccupation with activities that make life better or worse against a linear scale delivers an analysis of an amoral and self-contained agency that reveals virtually nothing of the socio-psychology of the human condition.