Monday, November 28, 2011

A happiness store? Its happening in Vermont

The Happiness Paradigm
by Ginny Sassaman
a repost!

Happiness is both unique and universal. One universality is the importance of gratitude. As I embark on my blog journey, gratitude is no stretch. Indeed, I am overflowing with thankfulness for the many people who have showered me with generosity recently.

I don’t want this blog to be about me. It will be about all of us, as we work together to create greater happiness on the micro and macro levels.

To start, though, I will be personal. I’m going to name name’s:

First, my son Ben toiled for months turning the slightly decrepit A-frame in our backyard into a warm, colorful, and welcoming happiness oasis. Gone is the disgusting carpet, the sagging walls, the broken heater filled with mice souvenirs. The A-frame is now filled with color and joy — and, as we enter a long Vermont winter — heat!

Judy and Jenny stopped by to help me paint the polka dotted display pieces. Jenny delivered Happiness Paradigm posters all over Central Vermont and then volunteered to provide beautifully arrayed opening day refreshments.

Roni baked chocolate chip cookies, described by one visitor yesterday as “happiness in a circle.” Debbie surprised me with another batch of cookies. Renee was going to help Roni bake, but with a 10-week old baby (the totally perfect Charlie) that didn’t work out — so she brought a supply of chocolate candy instead. Rob brought a cupcake, and Paige brought a cake fresh from her mom Karen’s oven. Laurel brought M&M’s, AND gave me one of her upcycled bags. Ulrike and John shared wine, cheese and crackers at the end of a very long grand opening.

My sister Peggy in New Jersey has been scouring sources for happy items and interesting books that would be perfect for the store, and her son Timmy is working on a Wikipedia article about The Happiness Paradigm.

Lynn, Kairn, Jeannette, Cheryl and Liz all pitched in to edit the all important first Happiness Paradigm press release.

Megan and my other former colleagues at Home Share Now were an amazing and constant source of used colored paper for me to shred and turn into recycled paper art. I learned how to do that just last February, thanks to Christina and her friend Carrie who volunteered to teach a paper making class.

Amy, Kathleen, and Marianne have all agreed to come to the store and lead sessions on non-toxic cleaning (Dec 3), healing through sound waves (Dec 17), and how to wear recycled saris (Dec 10), respectively. In January, Linda is ready to teach reiki techniques, and Edward will lead us in laughing yoga.

Betsy gave me boxfuls of books to stock the “lifelong learning” free lending library. Janet is sharing her magical paper mache art. Nel, the queen of making art from things other people throw away, brought some of her gems to sell on consignment. Another Renee delivered colorful and warm hats knitted from recycled yarn — and, interviewed me on her WGDR radio show.

I can’t imagine how I could have gotten to this point without Kayla’s unwavering healing touch. And I’m blessed with smart, creative, and loving friends (insert long list here!!) who helped me find the courage to take risks.

My daughter Jennifer is my long distance cheerleader, especially on Facebook. In the spring, she’ll make me very, very happy when she gives birth to my granddaughter.

Best for last: Bob. Even though I was just barely 17 when we got married, somehow or the other I managed to get hitched to a really, really nice man who always trusts me to forge my own path. Plus, he’ll cook dinner, help with a multitude of tasks, figure out my computer needs (including setting up this blog). Not only that, he’s agreed to lead monthly ukulele sessions at The Happiness Store and Experience. That makes both of us happy.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

The Atlantic Covers the Happiness Initiative

Hi all, Here is a reposting of an article in the Atlantic. Thanks! Laura

How Happy Is Seattle?


How Happy Is Seattle?
Flickr/mikeyskatie

Last week The Happiness Initiative, a Seattle-based organization determined to determine the city's well-being, presented the results of its first survey. During the first half of 2011 more than 2,600 Seattle residents took the survey, which examines nine happiness domains, including health, community, and psychological well-being. The initiative's measurement pairs broad questions with more objective indicators; the health domain, for instance, looks at self reports of general physical fitness as well as documented obesity rates.
On overall well-being, Seattle residents received a rather rainy score of 66 out of 100. (Abbreviated results here; much more useful full report here [PDF].) They scored particularly low on measures of "time balance" and environmental well-being: roughly 43 and 46, respectively. They don't appear happy with government, either — though who is these days — scoring a 58 on that domain.
Still there were a few traces of sunlight: The city scored best on psychological and material well-being — nearly 78 and 73, respectively. On three other domains — health, community, and cultural vitality (which asks about things like discrimination and recreation) — Seattle scored in the 60s.
If you live in Seattle you may find the neighborhood-by-neighborhood chart more informative (larger circles indicate more responses; darker ones, happier responses):
Some of the survey results harmonized with the objective data, while others did not. Seattle residents have rather long commutes, at nearly 30 minutes, and carbon emissions have increased lately at a local level, which supports low scores in the time and environment domains. But recently the city has seen a rise in ballot returns, an increased demand for domestic violence support, and falling levels of per capita income, according to the report. Those measurements somewhat contradict the survey findings on the government, psychological, and material domains.
The inconsistencies underscore the difficulty of measuring happiness across a general population. While the sample size was large, it wasn't random. It was also a voluntary survey, which may have attracted an unhappier population, for the same reason review sites like Yelp are filled with feedback from dissatisfied users.
Still happiness is important, and the Happiness Initiative is doing a service in trying to measure it in an empirical, systematic fashion, rather than resorting to some Oprah-style "10 ways to increase your happiness" list. The initiative has developed partnerships in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and hopes to do the same in cities across the country. It's also hoping to use its findings to impact public policy: the Seattle city council recently agreed to "take into account the survey results and objective data for policy decisions and resource allocation," according to the survey report.
Exactly what the council plans to do is unclear. Broadly speaking, experts disagree on how to use happiness research to improve general well-being. For one thing, the best psychological evidence suggests that our happiness doesn't change much over time. As Dan Gilbert of Harvard, author of Stumbling on Happiness, once told me: "all that wonderful stuff we're aiming for — winning the lottery, getting promoted, whatever we think will change our lives — probably won't do it after all." And personal happiness also must be weighed against other social considerations, as Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker pointed out in a recent reviewof The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being, by Derek Bok:
Surely, trashing the planet is just as wrong if people take pleasure in the process as it is if they don’t. The same holds true for leaving future generations in hock and for exploiting the poor and for shrugging off inequality. Happiness is a good thing; it’s just not the only thing.
Photo credit: mikeyskatie/Flickr

Eric Jaffe is a contributing writer to The Atlantic Cities and the author of The King's Best Highway: The Lost History of the Boston Post Road, the Route That Made America. He lives in New Yor

Friday, November 25, 2011

Does the Napa Valley Need a Happiness Initiative?

Here is a re-post of an article written by Jeff Vande Clute, one of our project advisors and member of Compassionate Action Network board member.


Does the Napa Valley Need a Happiness Initiative?

Jeff Vander Clute

The Napa Valley is the image of prosperity, renowned globally for its wine and fine dining. Visitors to the Napa Valley experience beauty and leave nourished in multiple ways, while people on distant shores literally drink the fruits of our labor. Thus, those who live here contribute, directly or indirectly, to the happiness of people all over the world.

Contributing to the happiness of others is a beautiful service to humanity, and important work. Yet our own “human sustainability” requires that we also pay close attention to the happiness, or well-being, of those who live in the Napa Valley. It would be easy, given the external orientation of our industries and institutions, to overlook our own quality of life and not ask questions like: How well are we doing, beyond the usual financial indicators? How happy are we in Napa or American Canyon, in Saint Helena or Calistoga? How about those who work in the restaurants, at the wineries, or in the vineyards? How happy are our educators and our children? What about the well-being of Latinos? And how can we increase the quality of life for everyone in the Napa Valley, recognizing that we are all interconnected?

These are basic questions that hearken back to the founding of the United States, when it was declared that we all have the unalienable right to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” However, until recently there have been few ways to systematically measure how well that “pursuit” is going. Now, a growing number of countries, communities, and organizations around the world are prioritizing and measuring people’s happiness, and then using that information to improve their quality of life.

The trend started in the early 1970s, when the king of the Himalayan nation of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, coined the term “Gross National Happiness” (GNH) to refer to a way of measuring quality of a life that would be more comprehensive than Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which considers only the economic output of a country. The Centre for Bhutan Studies subsequently created a detailed survey for measuring the well-being of the Bhutanese, incorporating assessments of psychological well-being, ecology, health, education, culture, living standards, time use, community vitality, and good governance. Since then, GNH has been used as the primary indicator of progress in Bhutan.

Thousands of academic papers have been published worldwide on the study of happiness, and there is a growing global awareness that traditional economic indicators such as GDP are incomplete, and even misleading. The concepts of Gross National Happiness have been applied on regional and local levels in the Canadian province of British Columbia; and in June of this year the city of Seattle, Washington endorsed a GNH-based “Happiness Initiative” developed by Sustainable Seattle. With momentum clearly building around GNH, in July the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution entitled “Happiness: towards a holistic approach to development,” which calls on member states to “undertake steps that give more importance to happiness and well-being in determining how to achieve and measure social and economic development.”

Given the emergence of the Happiness Initiative and other similar efforts, we might ask, “Does the Napa Valley need a Happiness Initiative?” A number of people and organizations in the Napa Valley believe the answer is yes.

In October 2009, Janna Waldinger, who sits on the board of directors for both the Napa County Office of Education and the American Happiness Association (AHA), brought AHA co-founders Dr. Aymee Coget and Sandi Smith Leyva to Napa to present a parent workshop on happiness. The workshop, attended by about 45 parents, offered various methods to increase happiness, recognizing that for children to be happy they need happy households. Since then, there has been ongoing follow-up in the schools to teach related tools and principles, such as resiliency, to teachers. At the same time, a new nonprofit called Thrive Napa Valley has been exploring, with community leaders and local officials, the possibility of implementing a valley-wide Happiness Initiative in partnership with Sustainable Seattle’s Happiness Initiative project.

The proposed Napa Valley Happiness Initiative would start with a broadly-based community collaboration to survey a diverse and statistically significant sample of people in the Napa Valley. The resulting data—measuring ten domains of well-being—would provide a holistic assessment of the effectiveness of government policies and the health of our communities. The survey findings would be published on a simple-to-use website and in the local newspapers, with the result that everyone in the Napa Valley could see what’s working well and where more tender loving care is needed. Community organizations, businesses, and local governments would then be able to work together with greater focus to create a more thriving Napa Valley.

The case for a Happiness Initiative would not be complete without mentioning how increasing the overall well-being of the people who live here can be great for business. Research shows that happy people are not only friendlier—important in the service sector—but also more productive. Consider San Francisco-based Joie de Vivre Hospitality, which was founded in 1987 with employee and customer happiness as the top priority. Joie de Vivre grew to become the largest hospitality company in the Bay Area, with annual revenues of a quarter of a billion dollars. And finally, a hometown story: Thrive Napa Valley’s own Bonny Meyer co-founded Silver Oak Cellars in 1972 with the belief that people who are happy and having fun make great wine… which they did, year after year.

Email happiness@thrivenv.org to let us know what you think about the proposed Napa Valley Happiness Initiative. Jeff Vander Clute is a co-founder of Thrive Napa Valley.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Gifford Pinchot's Happo Dammo Ratio

Hanging here at KCTS and ran into Gifford and Libba Pinchot, and he mentioned his blog entry the HappoDammo ratio! Check it out. - Laura

February 16, 2010

Friday, November 18, 2011

Does Your Town Need a Happiness Initiative?


The benefits would be numerous: Policymakers would have a better sense of where to direct limited resources and policy attention. Nonprofits and businesses would be able to identify specific areas for community improvement. And residents would be able to assess how they compare, on average, with each other and with people in other regions, on everything from time availability to financial stability.

Fortunately, a relatively simple tool has been designed to do just that. The Seattle-based Happiness Initiative recently updated a carefully vetted, scientific survey to help individuals, businesses, and local governments measure people’s “life conditions and satisfaction” in 10 “domains” of happiness: Material Wellbeing, Physical Health, Time Balance, Psychological Wellbeing, Education and Learning, Cultural Vitality, Environmental Quality, Governance, Community Vitality, and Workplace Experience.

“The survey makes people think about their lives and about what’s important to them,” says Happiness Initiative Outreach and Media Director John de Graaf, author of the books Affluenza, Take Back Your Time and What’s the Economy for, Anyway? “It encourages us to take a more holistic view of ‘progress’ that extends beyond just GDP. Communities can get a sense of where they’re thriving and where they’re hurting, not just economically but in areas that really matter to people.”

How It Works

De Graaf believes the survey, created by psychology professor Ryan Howell and a research team at San Francisco State University, is “the best measurement of well-being out there anywhere.”

So how does it work? It’s simple: a person goes to the Happiness Initiative website and answers a series of online questions in each of the 10 domains of happiness. The site quickly compiles the results and provides an assessment of how the person compares in each of the 10 areas to a baseline sample of 700 Americans, where a score of 50 is the average. If a person gets a score of 75 in “Environmental Quality," for example, this indicates the person’s above-average satisfaction with the environmental amenities in his or her community. Similarly, a score of 25 in “Governance” suggests that the person has low confidence or trust in local government.

In addition to providing individual responses, the Happiness Initiative team is aggregating the survey responses (while carefully respecting people’s privacy) to obtain an overall national assessment score. The most significant findings so far? “We’re discovering the huge

importance of community-building for people’s well-being,” says de Graaf. “Perhaps not surprisingly, we’ve found that people who live with others, for example, are happier than those who live alone.”

But one of the more unexpected recent findings, according to de Graaf, is that young people (ages 19 to 24) are not faring as well as they once were. “Typically, when we do happiness surveys, we find that people are happy when they are younger, less happy in middle age, and then happy again when they get older. But this isn’t necessarily the case anymore as young people face greater college debt loads and uncertain job futures.”

The potential applications of the Happiness Initiative’s approach are numerous. In addition to local governments or community groups using the survey to assess the well-being of local residents, a business or workplace could, for example, use it to measure employees’ satisfaction with their work environment, and tailor its responses accordingly. “Our results show that the lowest scores are consistently in the domain of ‘Time Balance,’ indicating that many American workers face high levels of stress,” explains de Graaf. “If companies are smart, they will make institutional changes to address this, such as instituting paid vacation or sick day policies, or flexible workweeks.”

Other areas with lower aggregate scores are confidence in government and financial security, which may not be surprising given today’s economic and political climate. “International studies show that greater economic inequality decreases happiness,” says de Graaf. “If you look at the Gallup-Healthways rankings, which are based on very solid science, the world’s happiest countries—Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands—are the most egalitarian, have the best time balance, and also pay the highest taxes. The U.S. is eleventh on the list.”

The Gallup-Healthways U.S. Well-Being Index, as of 11/01/11.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

This idea of measuring happiness on a broad scale isn’t new. As early as 1972, the Kingdom of Bhutan launched an ambitious large-scale effort to measure “Gross National Happiness,” basing its assessment on nine of the 10 domains outlined above. A group in Victoria, British Columbia, took on the task of adapting the approach to Western audiences. U.S. researchers later added a tenth variable—Workplace Experience—because polls show that, for good or for bad, a person’s place of work occupies a good portion of his or her mental and physical space.

In some ways, the Happiness Initiative is helping America return to its roots. “In reality, happiness is the original American Dream,” says Happiness Initiative Executive Director, Laura Musikanski. “Thomas Jefferson once wrote that the sole purpose of government is to increase the happiness of people.” With this in mind, Musikanski’s team is promoting Jefferson’s birthday, April 13, as “Pursuit of Happiness Day,” encouraging communities that are using the survey to look at their scores and engage in broader conversations around the issues they illuminate.

Across the country, interest in the Happiness Initiative—and the opportunities it offers for community development—is growing. Seattle, where the group is based, has taken the concept the furthest, with the City Council unanimously adopting the approach as a means to assess citywide well-being.

At least 20 other U.S. cities are interested in the Happiness Initiative, from Santa Fe, New Mexico and Montpelier, Vermont to Decorah, Iowa, a town of 8,000 in America’s heartland. Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a city of 66,000, developed a city happiness partnership and its own Happiness Initiative website,www.eauclairehappiness.com. The president of Seattle’s City Council recently suggested that the National League of Cities—a nonprofit that serves as a resource to and an advocate for more than 19,000 U.S. cities, villages, and towns—consider the methodology. In doing so, a community can access tools to create its own tailored “Happiness Initiative” website to serve as a hub for survey results and related information.

De Graaf notes that some 100 colleges nationwide expect to use the survey to assess students’ well-being, and that people in at least eight other countries—including Spain, Hungary, Sweden, the Netherlands, Japan, Mexico, India, and Namibia—are investigating using the approach on a national scale. According to de Graaf, students in Sâo Paolo, Brazil have been going door to door in slum neighborhoods encouraging residents to take a version of the survey, in an effort to better gauge community needs.

De Graaf acknowledges that some of the policy implications of the survey may be clearer at the national level than at the local level. For instance, countries like the U.K., Brazil, Canada, and France are now considering the use of well-being indicators, in addition to GDP, to assess progress. And certain domains of happiness, such as “Time Balance,” may be harder to address than others. Broader solutions include steps like reducing commute times, tackling urban sprawl, and increasing density. But local governments can also pass more discrete measures such as requiring employers to provide paid sick days, which is currently law only in Milwaukee, San Francisco, Seattle, and the District of Columbia.

In addition to the survey, the Happiness Initiative will soon be offering more specific modules to enable communities to perform more in-depth assessments in particular areas like the environment, consumerism, and even compassion. People could then compare these results to their overall happiness score.

Interested in Bringing the Happiness Initiative to Your Community?

Contact the leaders of the initiative at happy@happycounts.organd download the toolkit from the Happiness Initiative’s website atwww.happycounts.org.

Also, watch this 9-minute video from KCTS9, the Seattle PBS affiliate on how the Happiness Initiative got started [the happiness segment starts two minutes into the program].

Does Your Town Need a Happiness Initiative?


What if you could accurately measure the happiness of your community based on specific parameters like physical health, material well-being, and even overall work-life balance?

The benefits would be numerous: Policymakers would have a better sense of where to direct limited resources and policy attention, Nonprofits and businesses would be able to identify specific areas for community improvement, and residents would be able compare themselves, on average, to each other as well as people in other regions, on everything from time availability to financial stability.

Fortunately, a relatively simple tool has been designed to do just that. The Seattle-based Happiness Initiative recently updated a carefully vetted, scientific survey to help individuals, businesses, and local governments measure people’s “life conditions and satisfaction” in 10 “domains” of happiness. These include Material Wellbeing, Physical Health, Time Balance, Psychological Wellbeing, Education and Learning, Cultural Vitality, Environmental Quality, Governance, Community Vitality, and Workplace Experience.

“The survey makes people think about their lives and about what’s important to them,” says Happiness Initiative Outreach and Media Director John de Graaf, author of the books Affluenza, Take Back Your Time, and What’s the Economy for, Anyway? “It encourages us to take a more holistic view of ‘progress’ that extends beyond just GDP. Communities can get a sense of where they’re thriving and where they’re hurting, not just economically but in areas that really matter to people.”

How It Works

De Graaf believes the survey, created by psychology professor Ryan Howell and a research team at San Francisco State University, is “the best measurement of well-being out there anywhere.”

So how does it work? It’s simple; a person goes to the Happiness Initiative website and answers a series of online questions in each of the 10 domains of happiness. The site quickly compiles the results and provides an assessment of how the person compares in each of the 10 areas to a baseline sample of 700 Americans, where a score of 50 is the average. If a person gets a score of 75 in “Environmental Quality," for example, this indicates that the person has an above-average satisfaction with the environmental amenities in his or her community. Similarly, a score of 25 in “Governance” suggests that the person has low confidence or trust in local government.

In addition to providing individual responses, the Happiness Initiative team is aggregating the survey responses (while carefully respecting people’s privacy) to obtain an overall national assessment score. The most significant findings so far? “We’re discovering the huge importance of community-building for people’s well-being,” says de Graaf. “Perhaps not surprisingly, we’ve found that people who live with others, for example, are happier than those who live alone.”

But one of the more unexpected recent findings, according to de Graaf, is that young people (ages 19 to 24) are not faring as well as they once were. “Typically, when we do happiness surveys, we find that people are happy when they are younger, less happy in middle age, and then happy again when they get older. But this isn’t necessarily the case anymore as young people face greater college debt loads and uncertain job futures.”

The potential applications of the Happiness Initiative’s approach are numerous. In addition to local governments and community groups using the survey to assess the well-being of local residents, a business or workplace could, for example, use it to measure employees’ satisfaction with their work environment, and tailor its responses accordingly. “Our results show that the lowest scores are consistently in the domain of ‘Time Balance,’ indicating that many American workers face high levels of stress,” explains de Graaf. “If companies are smart, they will make institutional changes to address this, such as instituting paid vacation or sick day policies, or flexible workweeks.”

Other areas with lower aggregate scores are confidence in government and financial security, which may not be surprising given today’s economic and political climate. “International studies show that greater economic inequality decreases happiness,” says de Graaf. “If you look at the Gallup-Healthways rankings, which are based on very solid science, the world’s happiest countries—Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands—are the most egalitarian, have the best time balance, and also pay the highest taxes. The U.S. is eleventh on the list.”

The Gallup-Healthways U.S. Well-Being Index, as of 11/01/11.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

This idea of measuring happiness on a broad scale isn’t new. As early as 1972, the Kingdom of Bhutan launched an ambitious large-scale effort to measure “Gross National Happiness,” basing its assessment on nine of the 10 domains outlined above. A group in Victoria, British Columbia, took on the task of adapting the approach to Western audiences. U.S. researchers later added a tenth variable—Workplace Experience—because polls show that, for good or bad, a person’s place of work occupies a good portion of his or her mental and physical space.

In some ways, the Happiness Initiative is helping America return to its roots. “In reality, happiness is the original American Dream,” says Happiness Initiative Executive Director, Laura Musikanski. “Thomas Jefferson once wrote that the sole purpose of government is to increase the happiness of people.” With this in mind, Musikanski’s team is promoting Jefferson’s birthday, April 13, as “Pursuit of Happiness Day,” encouraging communities that are using the survey to look at their scores and engage in broader conversations around the issues they illuminate.

Riverfront park in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Description: http://newdream.s3.amazonaws.com/19/df/b/2080/Eau_Claire_park.pngAcross the country, interest in the Happiness Initiative—and the opportunities it offers for community development—is growing. Seattle, where the group is based, has taken the concept the furthest, with the City Council unanimously adopting the approach as a means to assess citywide well-being.

At least 20 other U.S. cities are interested in the Happiness Initiative, from Santa Fe, New Mexico and Montpelier, Vermont to Decorah, Iowa, a town of 8,000 in America’s heartland. Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a city of 66,000, developed a city happiness partnership and its own Happiness Initiative website,www.eauclairehappiness.com. The president of Seattle’s City Council recently suggested that the National League of Cities—a nonprofit that serves as a resource to and an advocate for more than 19,000 U.S. cities, villages, and towns—consider the methodology. In doing so, a community can access tools to create its own tailored “Happiness Initiative” website to serve as a hub for survey results and related information.

De Graaf notes that some 100 colleges nationwide expect to use the survey to assess students’ well-being, and that people in at least eight other countries—including Spain, Hungary, Sweden, the Netherlands, Japan, Mexico, India, and Namibia—are investigating using the approach on a national scale. According to de Graaf, students in Sâo Paolo, Brazil have been going door to door in slum neighborhoods encouraging residents to take a version of the survey, in an effort to better gauge community needs.

De Graaf acknowledges that some of the policy implications of the survey may be clearer at the national level than at the local level. For instance, countries like the U.K., Brazil, Canada, and France are now considering the use of well-being indicators, in addition to GDP, to assess progress. And certain domains of happiness, such as “Time Balance,” may be harder to address than others. Broader solutions include steps like reducing commute times, tackling urban sprawl, and increasing density. But local governments can also pass more discrete measures such as requiring employers to provide paid sick days, which is currently law only in Milwaukee, San Francisco, Seattle, and the District of Columbia.

In addition to the survey, the Happiness Initiative will soon be offering more specific modules to enable communities to perform more in-depth assessments in particular areas like the environment, consumerism, and even compassion. People could then compare these results to their overall happiness score.

Interested in Bringing the Happiness Initiative to Your Community?

Description: http://newdream.s3.amazonaws.com/19/47/c/2077/Screen_shot_2011-11-16_at_8.14.48_PM.png

Contact the leaders of the initiative at happy@happycounts.org and download the toolkit from the Happiness Initiative’s website at www.happycounts.org.

Also, watch this 9-minute video from KCTS9, the Seattle PBS affiliate on how the Happiness Initiative got started [the happiness segment starts two minutes into the program].

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

What's the Economy For, Anyway?

Why It's Time to Stop Chasing Growth and Start Pursuing Happiness

By John de Graaf and David K. Batker

Reposted from: Bloomsbury Press
Named Best Business Book for Fall 2011 by Publishers Weekly

Get your copy today!
The question no one ever bothered to ask about the economy: How can we make it work for us, instead of the other way around?In this funny, readable, and thought-provoking book based on the popular film of the same name, activists John de Graaf (coauthor of the bestselling Affluenza) and David Batker tackle thirteen economic issues, challenging the reader to consider the point of our economy. Emphasizing powerful American ideals, including teamwork, pragmatism, and equality, de Graaf and Batker set forth a simple goal for any economic system: The greatest good for the greatest number over the longest run. Drawing from history and current enterprises, we see how the good life is achieved when people and markets work together with an active government to create a more perfect economy-one that works for everyone.
Beginning by shattering our fetish for GDP, What's the Economy For, Anyway? offers a fresh perspective on quality of life, health, security, work-life balance, leisure, social justice, and perhaps most important, sustainability. This sparkling, message-driven book is exactly what those lost in the doldrums of partisan sniping and a sluggish economy need: a guide to what really matters, and a map to using America's resources to make the world a better place.

Advance Praise for What’s the Economy For, Anyway?:
“With our economy tattered and listing, it's an excellent moment to ask basic questions: what should we be aiming for as a society, and what's necessary to get there? Happily, other parts of the world provide many of the answers, as John de Graaf and David Batker show in this extremely valuable volume.”—Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

“Yes, What’s the Economy For, Anyway? is tremendously exciting, thought-provoking, and essential to thinking about our survival. But for me, it’s just plain fun to read! I’ve always been the hedonist of the Simplicity movement, so I know when something is truly enjoyable. And this book is. Read and enjoy!”—Cecile Andrews, author of Slow Is Beautiful, and Circle of Simplicity“

This book raises many fundamental questions that are rarely asked. Why should be people be unemployed when there is work to be done? Why do economists tend to view income as being more valuable than vacations and other forms of leisure? Our view of the economy tends to be far too narrow. What’s the Economy For, Anyway? will help broaden our perspective.”—Dean Baker, co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research

“By focusing on economic growth, we get misery in the USA. But the authors suggest another world is possible, one that would be better for all. We will all do better for following their advice to build a house of health and achieving the good life that lasts forever.”—Stephen Bezruchka, MD, University of Washington School of Public Health

“Economics professors are good at answering ‘how to’ questions, but not so good with ‘what for?’ or ‘so what?’ questions. This clearly and simply-written book strikes a powerful blow for economic sanity by asking the main ‘what for?’ questions, and giving cogent and specific answers. A wonderful voter’s guide on economic issues for the 2012 election and beyond!”—Herman E. Daly, professor emeritus, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland

“The economy should be for us, but it’s not. This smart, lively, and lovable book explains how we could move it in a happier and more sustainable direction.”—Nancy Folbre, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts, author of The Invisible Heart

“At a time when a lot of insane ideas are in danger of being enacted in Washington DC, including a frenzy of bills to fleece the middle-class and further pamper our economic elite, this book asks the most fundamental question of all: what in hell is the economy for, if not for a good and sustainable quality of life for all? And it offers some fresh ideas for economic progress based on common sense and the common good. Read, absorb, and take action!”—Jim Hightower, former Texas Agriculture Commissioner and author of Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow

“You get what you measure. De Graaf and Batker demonstrate clearly and powerfully that getting an economy that works for us begins with getting clear on we really want.”—David Korten, author of Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth and When Corporations Rule the World

“This urgently-needed book—covering a range of ageless issues—asks one of the most fundamental questions surrounding the evolution of human societies and personal life: what should an economy most significantly do? To these authors, the answer for the United States is more clearly than ever not about facilitating more work days and more buying power. Rather, it is about creating more freedom and more time for its citizens to live their lives with basic security, balance, and richness. De Graaf and Batker seek to restore common sense and vision, and to provide worthy practical guidelines for changes in the U. S. socioeconomic system. Together they offer new and vital hope as hopelessness seems sadly on the rise.”—David Mick, Ph.D., Professor of Marketing, University of Virginia

“What’s the Economy for, Anyway? informs, entertains and inspires while it explains the ‘dismal science’ so ordinary people like you and me can see what a “bill of goods” we’ve been sold about the economy. We’ve given allegiance to a false financial god that promised us prosperity, delivered for a while and then told us not to worry, to keep the faith as debt piled up, people lost their homes, the average work week ballooned far beyond forty hours (if you have a job), and the basics of the social safety net were threatened. This book not only shows what’s happened in broad terms, it offers specific, humane, common sense policies!”—Vicki Robin, coauthor, Your Money or Your Life

“Since the financial collapse of 2007, snake-oil peddlers have diverted the economic conversation into misguided answers and the wrong questions. Charlatans, beware! De Graaf and Batker have produced a powerful antidote. Their combined expertise on issues of happiness, time use, ecology and economic alternatives permeates the pages of this breezily-written, inspiring, and common-sense account of what really yields true economic well-being.”—Juliet B. Schor, author of True Wealth, Born to Buy and The Overworked American