Practical economy You were born, live and work in Switzerland, a rich country. Is it also a happy country? With data at hand of interviews with 6,000 Swiss citizens, our team at the Zurich University carried out an econometric analysis suggesting that the institutional factors in form of direct democracy, through popular initiatives or referenda and of federal structure, through boosting local economy, the declared individual wellbeing of the citizens increases considerably and systematically. The Swiss confederation is the second -most happy nation of Europe, behind Denmark.
Other cross-sectoral data of Switzerland prove that individuals are happier regarding the improvement in the development of direct democracy institutions in their residence area. But Switzerland is the bank's home. Didn't the Lehman Brothers have a branch in their country? First of all I'd like to reform the image that many people still has of Switzerland as a country of banks and speculation. We Swiss people work in many other fields and consciously.
Going back to the question, the global crisis triggered by the Lehman Brothers confirms the great interrelation amongst the financial operations; it shows that globalization also has negative effects: some credits to real estate for sale in the United States can end up affecting the price of rice in Southeast Asia and cause an unprecedented crisis in the Spanish construction. Nevertheless, I think that the markets financial system and stock prices are still valid in economy welfare.
"The unemployed are less happy than employed people"Photo: Carmen Secanella Our study showed that, amongst all the macroeconomic variables, unemployment is the one with the most depressant effect of happiness.
In 1994 Clark and Oswald proved in the United States that unemployment makes people very unhappy, beyond the loss of revenue involved. Income, on the other hand, only increases happiness in the groups with higher income. Summarizing, the unemployed are less happy than employed people, but a higher income per capita only increases happiness to those with higher income categories.
Seen this way, mysticism and spirituality lose entirely Happiness is a purely psychological notion that in scientific terms can be evaluated through contrasting questionnaires. People who have no money say they are unhappy, the ones who haven't got much assume they would be happier with more and the ones who have lots are the ones exhibiting most happiness in the polls, from New York to Timbuktu.
Then, if rich people cry, it will be by laughing… Money buys happiness; but the effect is small and sometimes insignificant. The very rich, by not being too conscious about the money they win or save, can see their happiness devaluated on that side.
THE COPENHAGEN CONSENSUS
Diplomatic vicissitudes prevent the United Nations Organization (UNO) or the G-20 to identify with enough clarity the main problems that harass our world and to think of possible solutions.
With a new concept coined, the one of 'welfare economics', an International committee of wise people met in Copenhagen in 2004, lead by Bjorn Lomborg (author of The sceptical environmentalist) and under the sponsorship of the Danish government and the weekly journal The Economist. Its conclusions were as sharp as clear: despite the thousands of millions the UN, the national and international foundations, the campaigns or the NGO'S collect periodically to fight against hunger or climate change, nothing changes if it isn't for worse.
The wise of the Copenhagen consensus successfully claimed the UN and the world bank 10,000 million more annually of investment over the 60,000 budgeted until 2015. The average responds to the establishing of rational priorities that Frey and another seven economists review every two years: global warming, transmittable diseases, regional conflicts, education, financial instability, administrative corruption, malnutrition, migratory movements, water management and commercial barriers amongst countries.
