Very true…I still have my doubts on happiness research and consider it more of a fad than real science.

With that said though, I still tend to believe in the overall link between consumption and happiness. Not primarily because of happiness research, but because of my strong belief in what economists call revealed preferences. You look at what people do, not what they say…to see what they really prefer.

And without a doubt, what people do shows a clear link between consumption and…if not happiness…atleast something close. Given the choice, over and over again, people in poor countries want what people in rich countries have. They want the higher standard of living, the ipods, the computers and everything that comes with being wealthier. The reverse is never true (unless of course you romanticize the poor).

I’m not saying that poor people are not happy…or that rich people are not sad…or that poor people are not sometimes as genuinely happy as rich people. I am just trying to avoid making the fallacious claim that a wealthier life is objectively the same as a poor one – something liberals often have a hard time doing.

so you’ve reached Hindustan! yes, couldn’t help laughing out at your description ofthe delhi subway which you have to earn the right to enter token by token…i enjoyed taking it to old delhi last october and emerging from the stainless steel tube into crowded, antique, exciting chandni chowk.

anyway, i remember being told or reading donkey’s years ago that happiness is one thing the poor experience exactly the same as the rich. in other words there is no difference in the quality of happiness one experiences, once one feels happy. somehow that made a great imrpression and has never left me. an odd egalitarianism there despite all the other indignities and inequalities that separate us…

are you off to Cal next? remember Rustom…

Anyway, I really liked this video… simple story nicely put together. What kind of camera do you have? I want to get a new one for my next stint of traveling down south.

ayer vi la sesión de fotos con los niños y me conmovió bastante, sinceramente me pareció muy tierno, curiosamente, contrastó con el post en que haces un llamado a leer los post que vinculas.
saludos.