Joy! I earn more than happiness scientists!

January 31, 2006 1:22 AM

Reasons to be Cheerful : (mostly PDFs) You earn less than I do. I live in Malta. I am not single. I pay high tax rates. I believe in God. I don't watch TV. Abortion is legal where I live. And other lessons from the new science of hippiness happiness. (Sort of mentioned here.)
posted by DirtyCreature (17 comments total)

Reasons to be Miserable: Alito to be confirmed today.
posted by RavinDave at 1:34 AM on January 31, 2006

you read my mind, RavinDave.
posted by anda L. at 6:07 AM on January 31, 2006

Metafilter would be a much better place if every mefi was required to write down 3 things that well during their day and why. Put it in the pink! Great links DC.
posted by bluesky43 at 6:31 AM on January 31, 2006

Interesting to think about all those things together.
posted by raedyn at 6:46 AM on January 31, 2006

Please don't drag the American political wrangling into every thread. There's no reason to talk about Alito here.

Thanks,
The Rest of the World.
posted by raedyn at 6:47 AM on January 31, 2006

Concerning the "I am not single" link, the statement "married men had a much lower risk of death" is utterly ludicrous, and incredibly lazy journalism. Early death, maybe.
posted by gene_machine at 7:05 AM on January 31, 2006

Tune in,
Turn on,
Drop out.
posted by caddis at 7:18 AM on January 31, 2006

Reasons to be Miserable: Alito to be confirmed today.

Reasons to be Cheerful: A Supreme Court that devolves power to the legislature and a anti-Republican legislative majority.
posted by three blind mice at 7:22 AM on January 31, 2006

Concerning the "I am not single" link, the statement "married men had a much lower risk of death" is utterly ludicrous, and incredibly lazy journalism. Early death, maybe. - gene_machine

Clever. But the study was only over a 7 year period, as it says in the second sentence. It wasn't looking at lifetime risks.
posted by raedyn at 7:27 AM on January 31, 2006

Point being, I think they were looking at the risk of dying during the seven years they studied, not risk of dying ever.
posted by raedyn at 7:28 AM on January 31, 2006

Tune in,
Turn on,
Drop out.

Is happiness the end goal of your life? Are you content to be happy and do nothing? Does learning new skills and applying them, getting to know new people, and making important decisions not make you happy?
posted by Laugh_track at 9:35 AM on January 31, 2006

'the top 10% "very happy" people...spent the least time alone and the most time socialising.'

This is fascinating. Can anyone find the actual study or something like it?
posted by driveler at 9:35 AM on January 31, 2006

"married men had a much lower risk of death"

Yet their health insurance costs are significantly higher. Maybe they usually just get maimed.
posted by I Love Tacos at 9:35 AM on January 31, 2006

It might be worth noting here that 20-something, unmarried American Mefites who are constantly competing with each other, don't believe in God, are more concerned with world events than personal circumstances, are children of broken marriages and who watch a lot of TV are among the most unhappy in the world. Yes really (except for the Mefite bit).
posted by DirtyCreature at 10:31 AM on January 31, 2006

This is fascinating. Can anyone find the actual study or something like it?

Not sure of this particular result but plenty of interesting relevant papers here -
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/faculty/oswald/
http://cep.lse.ac.uk/layard/
posted by DirtyCreature at 10:55 AM on January 31, 2006

"married men had a much lower risk of death"

Yet their health insurance costs are significantly higher. Maybe they usually just get maimed. - I Love Tacos

(really?) Death means you stop costing your health insurer money. More living means more health costs. Or maybe a married man is more likely to be nagged into going to see the doctor than a similar single man?
posted by raedyn at 11:20 AM on January 31, 2006

(really?)

I don't know if it's universal, but at my company the health care costs are significantly higher for married men. (and that's excluding dependants. single men with children pay close to the same as single men without... but when they get married, it increases significantly.)

I haven't the foggiest clue why.
posted by I Love Tacos at 7:37 PM on January 31, 2006