>> john: in the declaration of independence this isn't the real one, thomas jefferson wrote we have the right to the pursuit of happiness. this was a new idea. for most of history, life was brutal and short. happiness was not even a question. survival was the question he. happiness might have been something like just seeing your kids live to become adults or something that might happen to you in the afterlife. and since a king or his minuteons ordered you around, pursuing your own happiness wasn't a question that came up for most people. then came the revolution and the idea of individual freedom. only then did more people start thinking that obtaining happiness here on earth might be possible. now, that radical idea has become almost an entitlement. some people believe it is government's job not just to allow us to pursue happiness but to create happiness. the british prime minister day ridavid cameron said there is more to life than money and time we focused not just on gdp but gwb, general well being. is that something that government can do? this new book tries to answer that question. a collection of studies on happiness. it was put together by phillip booth an economist with london's institute of economic affairs. george mason university economist chris coin is the author of one of the studies in that book. i will start with you. can government make people happy? >> no, i really don't think governments can make people happy. government must create a framework of individual freedom whereby individuals and families are free to pursue you happiness and there are several reasons for this. one is the decisions involve tradeoffs for one person working hard or working longer hours and saving in order to get a deposit on a house so you can have some where independent to live with his family might improve the family's well, being. for another spending more time with the family and less time at work might improve the family's well, being. the decisions are deeply involve tradeoffsyball which only individuals can take for themselves. >> john: not just your crazy government advocating this. the country of butan has gotten publicly by using something as gross national happiness instead of gross national product and they get wonderful attention. "new york times" says the new when he sure of well being from a happy little kingdom bhutan says business week is the happiest country in asia. >> , is there truth to that? >> i don't think it is a model that most western societies would want to copy. this happiness agenda really is a utility tarian agenda which takes us become to the ideas of the french revolution to believe that societies could somehow be designed to maximize the sum total of human happiness within the societies. >> john: chris, i would think -- >> and would be undermined as a result. >> john: i would think it would make more sense to judge how happy a country's people are if more people wanted to go there. more people want to go to america than want to go to bhutan where you can get locked up for criticizing the government. >> that is exactly right. the way to think about it as phillip pointed out is that not that happiness is a predefined bundle identified by government and implemented through a set of well designed policies. instead an alternative and what i believe is the correct way to view happiness is as a process of discovery where but you and i and phillip and other individuals have the opportunity to figure out and experiment with what makes us happy which, of course, changes over time. as you rightfully point out one indication of places of institutional environments that make people happy is where they want to move to. people tend to want to move to places that make them better off not worse off. the fact that so many people want to come to the united states indicates that they at least perceive there is the opportunity to pursue what makes them happy and to figure that out. >> john: and one study ranked united states 23rd on the list of happy places. bhutan was 8th. break down some of the things that do from the experimentation that we do know does make people happy. money. >> absolute income is positively related with happiness or well being and that as income grows it makes people better off and they report higher levels of well being. >> john: but the best data as i can tell shows that if you are miserably poor and make more money, worried about feeding your family and you make more money that makes you happier. more money doesn't make rich people happier. >> if you are poor increasing the income by a small amount can make you much happier. we should have a society where people are free to pursue the range of employment opportunities and set up businesses in a society which encourages prosperity. we get policies designed to promote well being and they do promote well being possibly for those who have jobs but keep people out of jobs which stop the unemployed from getting on the employment ladder in the first place which is the worst thing that you want to do for their well, being. >> john: and not just employment but purposeful work. even having control over your work place. at chrysler they found if they gave people more control on the assembly line they were happier. it is freedom to decide your own goals and move toward them. >> that is right. basically increasing the range of choices open to people allows them to experiment and figure out what they like and don't like and gives them a sense of purpose and control and ultimately the key contributor to humans flourishing and well being. >> john: a free society means there will be inequality and there is all about income inequality. one journalist writes the unequal societies of the least happy. and that is intuitive. >> that is wrong. >> this is -- >> completely wrong. >> there is no evidence that this is true in any of the academic literature. even the stagest proponent tion of government intervention to create happiness admit there is no relationship. shrinking incomes are making them close to some baselines that we all have equal incomes is a sure fire recipe to messry and a lack of well being. this idea just isn't true and actually runs the rick o risk f making people worse off by reducing not just their freedom but their income and ability to purchase things and experience things that make them better off. >> john: some people would say that government giving poor people stuff pulling them out of poverty that way would make them happier? >> well, interestingly, and this was a surprise to me when we commissioned this study. we discoverd that in fact the bigger government was the less happy societies tend to be. there is a direct relationship stripping everything else out between the government allowing people more freedom and well being increasing. and in the united states, you have had enormous unprecedented almost increases in government spending in the last ten years and i'm quite sure that that has led to a reduction in well being in the united states. this is probably partly because people are less free to pursue their own aims and objectives and pursue prosperity themselves. but also probably because they feel less of a sense of control over their own lives, the more of their money that government spends. >> and yet countries keep moving in the other direction. now, france the new you likely to win socialist wants to create maximum work laws. thinks more leisure will make people happy. >> right. so there the arguments for all of the government measures to basically impose constraints on people in order to maximize their well, being. by forcing people to work to a certain age or not to work to a certain age or engage in certain behaviors what government does is reduce the choice that is available to us as individuals which reduces our free doom. our alternative allows people more choices and allows them to choose what makes them happy. if we view happiness as a discovery process of experimenting with what you want and value. ultimately having more options is preferrable to having less. >> has to be both. >> john: thank you. coming up we will talk to the experts on how you can make yourself happier. maybe move from here on the charts up to here. [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery? ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for excellent fruit and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion, also refreshing plus tea. could've had a v8. you are a mother. a friend. a partner. a fighter. you have a chance to help control your blood sugar for yourself and for those who depend on you most. reducing your blood sugar can help reduce the risk of diabetes complications such as blindness, kidney disease, nerve damage and other serious health problems. if pills, diet and exercise aren't enough, you should know insulin is the most effective way to reduce your blood sugar. ask your doctor. and today insulin comes in easy-to-use pens. call to find out more about insulin and to get your free chance at control kit. you'll get facts about how insulin helps with type 2 diabetes and blood sugar control. you'll get a blood sugar diary, a meal planning guide and an app to access nutritional information and keep track of your food intake. the most common side effect of insulin is low blood sugar. some people may experience symptoms such as shaking, sweating, fast heartbeat, and blurred vision, while some experience no symptoms at all. call now for your chance at control kit. it will give you better understanding on insulin and how it can lower blood sugar. talk to your doctor about whether insulin is right for you. take control of your type 2 diabetes for yourself and for them. call or visit chanceatcontrol.com. >> john: look at the two images. the orange circles in the center are actually the same size. but the one on the right looks bigger because the circle surrounding it are smaller. it appears bigger because our minds judge based on what else is around. so, what does this have 20 do with happiness? a lot says the author of predictably irrational. the hidden forces that shape our decision. that is stan and he is a behavioral economist at duke university. how is happiness relative? >> happiness is relative in many ways. first of all, we compare our own happiness to our own past self. if you ask yourself how happy you are, how do you judge that based on what. >> john: how happy i was yesterday or last year. >> and based on other people around. it is interesting to realize that both of those ways of judging our happiness have mays takemistakes in them. if you surround yourself by lots of successful and happy looking people and you compare yourself to that and you would be miserable. in you surround yourself by lots of people miserable you will be relatively happier. >> john: so we should look for miserable friends? >> they have other effects. i would recommend at least a few miserable friends. >> john: you were burned severely in an accident in israel when you were 18 and this affected your take on happiness how? >> so i was burned in about 70% of my body and i spent about three years in hospitals. in the beginning of life in hospital i was incredibly miserable because my counter factual, the reality i compared myself to was the past reality. but that has been quite a few years. >> john: plus you were in pain. >> plus i was in pain. actually i'm still in pain but not as much as i had. but over awhile in hospital my social reference and frame work changed and i started comparing myself to other people around me my own image of myself as healthy kind of faded away and my happiness climbed because i had this comparison. actually it was incredibly difficult when i left hospital and i went into normal life all of a sudden i realized how more handicapped and limited i was compared to how it was before. when i was in hospital the whole environment was set up for people with disability. everybody around me had disability by comparisons. >> john: and you were improving. >> i was improving. a fantastic feeling that now is better than a month ago and every operation helped me a little bit and so on. but all of a sudden when i left hospital presumably a great achievement i encountered a different frame of reference around me. everybody was healthy. everything in life was designed for people who had no disabilities and that was incredibly disheartening and hard to deal with. >> reporter: and from my reporting i have been struck by how people who have had terrible accidents, paraplegics, often seem to report similar happiness levels to everybody else. and so are you saying you are just as happy now as you would have been had the accident not had happened? >> so, i think in some sense i'm not as happy i think as i would have. the thing that i'm not used to is pain. so i have lots of pain in my right-hand and if i write like a page or two a day i'm okay. if i have to write more than that i have a lot of pain and that is something that is very hard to get used to. i got used to lots of things. i can't use my hands very well for functional things. i get used to it. other challenges i get used to it. pain is one of those things hard to get used to because i feel it every day. >> john: without the pain you might have been as happy. >> not just as happy, perhaps even slightly happier. being relative, i have a incredible painful difficult memory of life in hospital. when i look at every day now of my life i say how much better is this than the other misery i suffered. hard to say i'm recommending that we burn people and put member in hospital but it does have some positive contrast. when bad things happen to me right now i put them in a much bigger perspective thinking these are small bumps in the road nothing to take seriously because i have the contrast of how miserable life could really be. >> john: on the flip side you talk to lottery winners and they think if i win life is perfect and no more money worries and happy for a week or a month and then a year later very little difference. >> we call these the hedonic treadmill. when it you look at your life and say what would happen if my life improved. i got a new car or apartment and won the lottery and my goodness i would be happy. the happiness is shorter lived than they think it would be and after awhile is the adaptation process. you go back in your memory and say last time i bought a car i was happy. not so happy now. let me renovate the kitchen. they get the increase in spending to get the happiness and the limit of happiness goes down. we keep on trying to look for happiness but end up running in place. but like all kinds of other things this has the good side and bad side. the bad side is we get used to happy things. bad things happen you think i will be really miserable for a long time and not as bad. >> john: that recovers, too. the message is if there is something you don't like do it all at once. >> that is absolutely right. imagine you are facing a task that you really hate. something really terrible that will take you a long time. you are saying this is terrible and then you want to break it say i really want to break and check facebook and do something else. the fact is you will adopt. it will start being negative and after awhile you will get used to it. the third hour is not as bad as the first hour and if you stop and take a break you would catch it back on the downside it would get even worse. take bad things all at once and good things take break. so you are really enjoying something take a break. >> john: stretch it out. say you are going to remodel your home and that will make it happy. the instinct is let's get it done and live it in longer. you say space it out. >> get a new sofa. enjoy it for awhile until it loses its newness and fading to the background and then get a new television and enjoy it for awhile until if fades into the background. doing it steps over time rather than get everything at once. and be very happy but having it fade-away. this this economic difficulty, by the way, the same thing happens when trying to cut down on expenditures. you sit there and you don't have enough money to pay for lots of things and the question is how should you cut your expenditures. should cut one thing every two months or a big bloicññ3 and when you think about it it turns out that your relative position like you are losing $2,000. >> you are losing $2,000 bucks. >> and if feels and it feels bad but the reality is that day-to-day you would get used to the frame work and being the highest most valuable employee would feel good on every day and being the lowest in comparison to everybody else driving better cars than you and have better clothes that would drive you better day to day. sad thing if we give the people the two jobs, everybody recognized being the highest paid ememployee is better but what will you take. very few people take the thing that would make them happier. feels bad to choose a lower paying job even if you know it will make you happy. >> john: thank you, dan. next, there is one group of people more likely to say they are happy. who are they and why are they so happy? our next guest will explain. when i grow up, i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're ner done growing. thanks, mom. i just want to get my car back. [ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. [ laughing ] vitafusion multivites: the adult gummy vitamin with the taste and nutrition that just might inspire a little "healthy" competition. enjoy your gummy vitamins. [ roger ] tell me you have good insurance. yup, i've got... [ kyle with voice of dennis ] ...allstate. really? i was afraid you'd have some cut-rate policy. [ kyle ] nope, i've got... [ kyle with voice of dennis ] ...the allstate value plan. it's their most affordable car insurance -- and you still get an allstate agent. i too have...[ roger with voice of dennis ]...allstate. [ roger ] same agent and everything. [ kyle ] it's like we're connected. no we're not. yeah, we are. no...we're not. ♪ the allstate value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. i'm not happy. at least i'm not happy enough. once i had a brain scan where scientists examined my brain activity and biologically i'm one of those other people that is prone to less happy than other people. on the other hand my unhappiness made me work harder and i worked hard in my school in my first job because i was successful then i would be happy. so maybe that brought my success in my career and maybe it's why i have this tv show. so rather just be happy. there aren't many more things important in life than happiness. so i envy one group of people. this group has consistently been shown to be happier than average religious people. why are they happy. why spirituality brings happiness. so why? >> one often religious people feel more connected with others and you have more of a sense of meaning in life. religious people do specific practices with their own brains. medication or related kinds of things that have been shown in very solid studies to change the brain are for the better over time. building casts for controlling attention and being more mindful and being more tuned in to yourself and bring negative emotional reactions in context. >> being more tuned in to yourself. being depressed you can wallow in your unhappiness? >> you can have sense or caught up in your own emotions bud spiritual practice and broadly defined helps people step back from the reactions so they are aware in a more mindful way. >> john: we know this really is true. you can't exactly measure happiness but they asked religious people how do you feel about your life, i'm happy. >> more than those that unfortunately on the average there are many people, but on the average, yes. religious people tend to be a factor of happiness. >> john: that is one way they measure it. this they ask people questions. this is another test once people did, they simply said which of these is you? o this chart here. you can go from the total smiley face to the frown. and percent a little, i find it very interesting that so many americans and this is american test rate thms happy. i put myself somewhere in here and religious people are more likely to pick the higher number. some people might say, look you are happy and tend to be happier if you have social interaction, family, friends and religious you probably to go church and you have more interaction with your church group. maybe that is why? >> mostly affects happiness is people's psychology. people have a spiritual life they have lessons to team teach people about finding a sense of gratitude in things and as well as doing little practices that is pretty easy to do you train your mind and change your brain for the better over time. >> buddha's brain argues there are little practices that people could do that would make me happier? >> one of them, several times a day, take 30 seconds was a positive in a row. no one knows you need to do it but it defeats the negativity which is like velcro. so that is what our ancestors learn to deal with negative experiences. >> john: just think about the good. >> stay with it. no one has chopped off my arm, little things. >> flowers are blooming, your kids are smiling at you. ain't dead yet. >> john: that is good. 92% of americans say they believe in god or some universal spirit. 80% say they pray regularly. all this helps people toward happiness? >> it's important to realize that religiosity is a wide spectrum. zbleijts 50% of americans according to a report meditating regularly several times a month? >> half of americans are meditating? >> last 30 years there has been a wave of research about the benefits some kind of mindfulness practice for physical health. strengths the immune system and reduces medical conditions and help people tolerate the distress of things like cancer. it improves productivity at work. there was recent review of the at harvard how mindfulness training can go to the bottom line in terms of profit. >> john: happy workers make more money? >> yes. and recent studies, practice routinely in one form or another actually changes the genes that control the stress response. it reaches down to help them make more effective as being more able to be resilient in the face of difficulties. >> john: i tried t.m. for two years and said it would cure my stuttering. it didn't. i wasted two years. thank you rick hanson. very interesting. coming up, something else that really does make people happy. if you do more of it, you'll make other people happy, too. [ thunder crashes ] the first and most important step toward accomplishing something is showing up. [ thunder crashes ] and with the most advanced all-wheel-drive system in its class that adapts to conditions as they change, now all you have to worry about is what you accomplish when you get there. ♪ no, i wouldn't use that single miles credit card. hey, aren't you... shhh. i'm researchg a role. today's special... the capital one venture card. you earn double miles on every purchase. impressive. chalk is a lost medium. if you're not earning double miles... you're settling for half. was that really necessary? [ male announcer ] get the venture card at capitalone.com and earn double miles on every purchase every day. what's in your wallet? cover for me. i have an audition. >> john: and steven post works as a medical school in what causes happiness. what causes happiness? >> contributing to the lives of other. 77% of americans say the thing that makes them most happy is giving to others. giving to charity economically or doing face to face helping activity, absolutely. >> john: even better face to face? >> even better because it involves more of the biological mechanisms that is called the care giving system. >> john: we covered some of the other things that contribute to happiness besides luxury and leisure, but religion, having family and friends to interact with, moving toward on goal. you say giving to others is the king. >> absolutely. 41% of americans volunteered in 2009. >> john: high. >> it is high. 6 electrode that measures areas of activity in the brain. >> john: different parts of the brain? >> yes. >> he gives each subject a menu of charities they could consider contributing to. a part of the brain gets active. it's a deeply evolved part of the brain, it's called the mesolimbic pathway but the part of the feelings of joy and doles out chemicals. >> john: i noticed some of this, mid 30s i didn't give much to charity. people would pay me a lot of money to give a speech. as a consumer reporter, i could be accused so i'm giving it to charities. it's kind of like i'm addicted. gee i need to keep doing this? >> it's good to be doing that, john. don't worry about yourself. >> john: i agree. i only stumbled in to it. i didn't know about this stuff. >> so everybody stumbles at some point in their lives. earlier is better. the studies a young kids that helps other that protected halo, they have lower rates of heart disease. this is a famous study that was done at the university of berkeley in california. so get started early. we ought to recognize this is tremendously important lesson in our society. there are many cultural factors that somehow create the myth that our nature utterly foul and corrupt. i'm not naive but the bottom line when we stay in touch with that capacity to care and give. we do flourish. >> john: there are some people that flourish being nasty? >> there are certain number of people that technically sociopaths. studies vary but it could be 2% to 3% of the population, it could be 4%. >> john: most of us benefit from being nice. >> this is really interesting question. as a human creature, we cannot give. we cannot be contribute to the lives of others without in fact ourselves feeling a sort of warmth. we have a hormone oxsitocin that makes a calmness and inner peace >> john: so it's selfish to give to others? >> there is an element involved. that is perfectly fine and i'm all for it. anybody that is talking about somehow giving as being inauthentic not being genuine. simply sple because we have feelings of purpose and gratification. somehow that makes it less valid to give. that is completely contrary to how we are hard wired as human creatures. we are evolved in such a way that we have these kinds of benefits. thank goodness we do. >> now, there are people on the left who would say. it's government's job to give to others. it makes me feel good to raise taxes and increase the handouts. makes them happy, maybe. >> it does. it's person to person that makes the difference. these are experiences that you can't delegate to a bureaucracy. they have to do person "a" and "b" in a face to face relationship which healthy and helpful. it is the case when you volunteer you wanted to work with a group that you feel you are called to because people come together and they make deeper friendship, two. they celebrate and acknowledge their activities. that is also sustaining. in a sense then, you can do the solo but good thing to have it organized in some kind of communal way. >> john: thank you steven post. latest book called "the hidden gift of helping." next. we take, when l we get happier. lots of people say, yes, we can. that is next. [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery? ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for excellent fruit and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion, also refreshing plus tea. could've had a v8. the droid razr is now $199.99. exclusively from verizon. aaaaask me. [ male announcer ] even if you think you can live with your old mattress... ask me how i've never slept better. [ male announcer ] ...why not talk to one of the 6 million people who've switched to the most highly recommended bed in america? it's not a sealy, a simmons, or a serta. ask me about my tempur-pedic. ask me how i can finally sleep all night. ask me how great my back feels every morning. [ male announcer ] did you know there's a tempur-pedic for everybody? tempur-pedic beds now come in soft, firm, and everything in between. ask me how i don't wake up anymore when he comes to bed. [ male announcer ] these are real tempur-pedic owners. ask someone you know. check out twitter or your friends on facebook. you'll hear it all, unedited. ask me how i wish i'd done this sooner. ask me how it's the best investment i've ever made. [ male announcer ] tempur-pedic brand owners are more satisfied than owners of any traditional mattress brand. ♪ to learn more or find an authorized retailer near you, visit tempurpedic.com. tempur-pedic. the most highly recommended bed in america. >> john: are you unhappy? would you like a pill? maybe i don't. these are antidepressants, $11 billion are sold every year and the name of antidepressant makes it sounds like a magic pill but this book manufacturing depression argues the pills are oversold and somebody would take them would do as well with a sugar pill. psychotherapist gary greenberg is the author? >>. >> there are two problems, clinic trials show that antidepressants are only moderately effective with depression. what that means is they don't necessarily do better than placebos do in treating depression. >> john: you had the experience? >> i had experience being treated with a placebo or drug not knowing which. i had the experience according to the studies getting better, getting better. >> john: tests said you were doing better? >> he was convinced i was on the antidepressant and indeed i was on placebo so i'm walking evidence that the placebo effect is real and has an effect particularly on the thing we called depression. >> john: but the placebo effect is powerful. that works for lots of problems. my understanding is depression from any people it's kind of chemical imbalance and 250 million prescriptions are written for these things, i assume there is proof to that. there is a little proof for chemical imbalance and nobody knows what chemicals are i am balanced. the idea of chemical imbalance is myth created over the years in an intentional way by the medical and pharmaceutical industry. any doctor who keeps up with the research has known for at least 10 or 15 years that the idea that a simple imbalance of say serotonin is what is causing depression. any doctor that has kept up with it knows it's not true. >> john: so why all the prescriptions? >> so the drugs work. people take them and feel better. 75% people that take them don't have a diagnosis of knregs. i'm not sure why that is. maybe their doctors don't want it on their records but they go to the doctor and get the pill. they are not necessarily depressed and officially not depressed. >> john: now, i have a college friend who is head of psychiatry at a major hospital. he came to me and reunion, you have to take this. even if you are not depressed it makes you feel great. this was the original observation in 1950s. they made you feel better than well. >> that is problem or not depending on how you feel taking drugs to change how you feel. we are confused in this country, to change you on how you feel. one of the things that have happened, the drug industry has increasingly encouraged to think that we're not taking the drugs to feel better but we're what we're doing is cure this chemical imbalance. >> john: what is wrong with that? >>. if in feeling better you had your illness cured and you never had a disease in the first place in some way you are not living in the truth. second problem is that we don't really know what the long-term effects are. >> john: there can be short term side effects. >> 60 to 70% of people of antidepressants suffer sexual side effects for instance. >> john: loss of sex drive? >> right. >> john: now the tests to figure out if someone really is depressed is interesting. there is no, you can't stick in thermometer and measure it. they have questionnaires that ask questions like what? >> it does say you if you feel guilty. how are sleeping and how your appetite is. the tests are looking at hamilton depression rating. >> john: feelings of guilt. insomnia? >> the doctor notes the answer answered and adds the numbers and if you rate over 18 points. then your depression, you are said to have depression. what we do, what doctors do and they measure the affect of antidepressants to measure how much it moves the scores on the hamilton scale. >> john: how much you get better? >> better or not. >> john: people say, they help with confidence and confidence is present requisite of all successful endeavors. rosie o'donnell. jim carrey talked on tv using prozac. people think it works for them. hu laurie, he talks about confidence. there is no question the drugs do something but we don't know what it is. the drug industry has spent most of their time measuring them against the hamilton rating scale which is lousy way to measure what they do. it happens to be convenient because it allows them to say these are the drugs that are treating depression. in reality the drugs are some like people take recreationly to enhance their world. there are drugs to help function in a world that is increasingly demanding. >> john: thank you gary. we will solve this here. coming up. i'll tell what you this awesome unhappy person has learned about happiness. >> john: when i showed this series of faces to people and asked them, which is you. i was amazed so many people pick the biggest smile here. >> which face describes how happy you are? >> this one. [ laughter ] >> i'm happy and married and just enough money. >> you are that happy? >> why not? >> john: because we've got real problems that need solutions. charles degaule was asked, are you happy. he said what do you take me for, an idiot? like the man, this one here. shows his mood. >> i'm sad is concerned face. >> john: why you are concerned? >> i'm worried about the economy. where we're going. freedoms and things like that. >> john: if we're responsible adults, who has time to obsess about being happy. van gogh was so tormented tore off his either. beethoven was sometimes cycle but he gave the world ode to joy. pursuing happiness is much of what life is about. one of my favorite books good government, he argue there is no higher aspiration than happiness. if you had one wish for your kids that they have wealth, success and a career or overall happy life, wouldn't you pick happiness? i once commission add poll on the topic and happy life outpolled all other choices combined. unfortunately today many people believe that government's job to create happiness, not to allow us to pursue it. government handouts and government guidance make people happier but that is a fallacy. happiness comes from the pursuit of other goals, accomplishing things at work. maintaining friendships and family. helping other people. it's telling that all those people on the street who says the biggest smile represents their state of mind, not one attributed their happiness to something they got from government. it was all family, friends and religion. >> for me it's kids. >> being with family. >> why you so happy? >> because i have the peace. >> they understood more government is not the answer. >> john: can government make people happy? >> no. people can make people happy. >> best thing government can do is get out of the way. that is our show. thanks for watching. good night. looking good! you lost some weight. you noticed! these clothes are too big, so i'm donating them. how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios... five whole grains, 110 calories.
Related Keywords
New York , United States , Berkeley , California , Israel , France , Reunion , United Kingdom , Bhutan , Americans , America , French , American , British , Jim Carrey , Sealy A Simmons , Gary Greenberg , John Stossel , Thomas Jefferson , Rick Hanson ,
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.