Tory ‘small-state’ government will make us less happy, LSE research suggests
Propaganda: Strangely, This Writer could not find any images that supported state intervention – only the opposite – even though research has shown it contributes more to human happiness. Interesting!
A country whose government intervenes to protect citizens from market instabilities appears to promote greater human happiness, according to research published by the London School of Economics.
The finding would suggest that Conservative governments, that prefer to leave the people at the mercy of the markets, are wrong-headed in their attitude. We all knew that anyway, didn’t we?
But the researchers have also made it clear that further inquiries are warranted – and offer no judgement on whether an expansive, activist state is “better” or “worse” than a limited one, even though they have found that social democratic policies do contribute to a world in which there is greater life satisfaction.
Public policies that attempt to insulate citizens from the ups and downs of the market economy appear to promote greater human happiness for all citizens in society.
Living in a country with more than average interventionist policies compared to less than average has a greater effect on happiness than the difference between someone who is married compared to unmarried and someone who is employed compared to unemployed (two of the most common predictors of subjective well-being).
We also find that the relationship between more government intervention and greater happiness is present for all citizens, regardless of whether they are rich or poor.
We further maintain that the market economy itself deserves renewed scholarly attention as a major factor in the empirical study of human happiness.
In short, the market system is a principal force determining the happiness of people and should be theoretically attended to as such.
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Tories don’t want a generally happy, contented population. They want a divided and bitter society which is at war with itself. That makes the few Tory millionaires very happy.
Not anything that can be construed as scientific research, but when I went on aBlack sea cruise general speaking the older citizens of the previous Warsaw pact bloc were happier and better off under government from the USSR, and younger ones happier having left. The reasons were older we were better off and had jobs and cheap fuel, younger we are not governed by Russia.