Steven Pinker, George Ward, Jeffrey Sachs, Lord Richard Layard: happiness as government goal

Historian and Fellow at Stanford University, Niall Ferguson, moderated a panel discussion on the adoption of happiness as a government goal and on the findings of a broad survey on global happiness. Lord Richard Layard, an economist and expert on happiness based at the London School of Economics, described the emergence of governments or political groups focused on happiness as a goal when he began working in this field. He went on to express his own delight at seeing this move to the forefront of many legislative agendas, with an increase of awareness for mental health issues. George Ward, a Research Associate also based at LSE's Centre for Economic Performance, laid out the results of his study. According to the economist, the fact that happier citizens are more likely to re-elect the incumbent government is one of a number of factors that should encourage politicians to focus on happiness, and could be a specific way of helping them reconnect with disgruntled voters, which has becoming more necessary in recent years. Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, said that as a governmental goal, happiness requires a thoughtful and balanced approach. He explained that happiness has to be part of a broad movement that improves the state of social goods and living standards, which will allow prosperity to create happiness, while any government should also strive for a balance between freedom of choice and shared happiness. The Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs, argued that across the world and across the political spectrum there is an expectation from citizens that the state will make them happier, but the problem is that most governments neither know how or have thought about it.