(no subject)
brooks is being a moron about the main conclusion he comes to here. it's a good thing he states it mildly - 'public institutions should pay attention to well-being and not just material growth narrowly conceived' - because otherwise i'd be forced to point out that government interference in the social sphere is generally pretty stupid and awful. case in point: 'The daily activities most associated with happiness are sex, socializing after work and having dinner with others.' governments that've interfered with the latter two were fascist, and it's strange that we do not consider a government interfering with the former similarly evil. in the next sentence, though, he says that the single factor that makes people most unhappy is commuting. good point; let's get, oh, an entire department of the government right on that. at least that makes another good argument for high density cities with excellent public transit.