Their most current campaign, "Open Happiness" has a clear slogan that is easy for everyone to get behind.
To be sure, both Aristotelian and Stoic accounts are clear that happiness alone does not suffice for well-being, that its significance is not what common opinion takes it to be, and that some kinds of happiness can be worthless or even bad.
(Let me be clear, our happiness was genuine and real, yet lacking a vital component needed for perfection).
"If you're genetically predisposed to not being a happy person, you have to put a lot of effort into it". The paper was a longitudinal study and not an experiment, so it's not entirely clear whether happiness truly caused the higher earnings.
There is also a clear link between happiness and income growth (as opposed to income levels).
Monkey puppets aside, the lesson is clear: maximizing our happiness is not about maximizing our goldfish.
"Scientists actually have a very clear definition of happiness," he explained.
POETS, songwriters and left-wing politicians hate the idea, but for decades opinion-poll evidence has been clear: money buys happiness and the richer you are, the more likely you are to express satisfaction with your life.
It is a top-down project, with a lineage stretching back to the Enlightenment, in which technocrats come up with what they see as a blueprint for happiness: clear, rational and beautiful.
The propaganda of health and happiness, clear skins and bright eyes, beside which the City worker looked pale or painted, was the chief work of the 130 girls who came long distances to win recruits.
