MELT DOWN = HIGHER GOOD

"It was the worst of times, it was the best of times..."

*this one is in process, so bear with me. also working to complete any entries below with a lovely header and seemingly invisible contents. the thin line between the written word and life has blurred a bit these past few months on the side of simply living without benefit or solace of recording. patience si vous plait!*

The End Is Not Near

Radley Balko @ Reason.com

Doom and gloom may prevail on Wall Street, in Washington, and in the media, said Radley Balko, but for most Americans life is not only pretty good—it’s getting better. Advances in technology are improving our standing of living, giving us more leisure time, improving our health, and “putting much of the world—quite literally—at our fingertips.” The crime rate has been in “free-fall” since the 1990s, with everything from sex crimes to juvenile crime in decline. As for our immoral, “sexualized culture,” the abortion rate is at a 30-year nadir and the divorce rate at its lowest point in four decades. Meantime, Americans are living healthier, longer lives, with mortality rates dropping for eight of the 10 leading causes of death. Yes, the economy is suffering a severe, cyclical downturn, but that hardly signifies “the downfall of American society” or some new Dark Ages. Socially, economically, and technologically, we’ve made an astonishing leap forward over the past two decades, and once this storm passes, we’ll still find ourselves with a “personal and economic freedom” unprecedented in human history.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/130861.html

And from The Week:

Happiness as national policy...
While technocrats the world over try to boost their nations’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP),the government of Bhutan is publicly dedicated to increasing GDH—Gross Domestic Happiness. The policy has four pillars: equitable and sustainable economic growth; environmental conservation; cultural preservation; and good government. But Bhutan is not the only nation focused on happiness as a matter of national policy. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, encouraged by fellow Labor Party member and renowned happiness scholar Richard Layard, has shown interest in using happiness studies to advance “well being” in the U.K. Layard argues for teaching “happiness skills” in school and for curtailing advertising that targets children, in an attempt to stifle envy and greed. The nub of his approach, though, involves an aggressive program of income redistribution—since, he says, “an extra pound or dollar gives more happiness to poor people than to the rich.” Of course that leaves unaddressed the unhappiness caused when taxes are raised to make that possible.