Can governments and nonprofits support community joy —
And reverse our American happiness decline?
Have Britain; Somerville, MA; or Bhutan successfully boosted happiness while it has declined in the US? If so, how? Can government and partners reverse recent declines in American happiness?
This post answers those questions and more.
This is the fourth post of four on the pursuit of Happiness.[1] The first discussed the history of the pursuit of Happiness through ~1776. The second discussed progress since then, and a recent reversal of progress. The third explored why that reversal is happening.
This post explores what has been done in the US to systematically support happiness to date (not too much) and shares some strategies governments and systems can take to ensure joy is the easier, or “downhill,” path for communities (and for all of us).
American governments haven’t done much — but they could
While our American justice system has removed encumbrances to the pursuit of Happiness, US governments have done very little to actively support it. The city of Somerville, MA, representing ~ 80,000 (.024%) of our ~332 million people, is among the only US governments that has proactively supported Happiness. However, other countries, including the UK and Bhutan, have been much more proactive.
In just a few years, Somerville boosted happiness and satisfaction of residents. They used their happiness survey together with other data to analyze the impact of initiatives. Data led them to invest in events including the “What the Fluff” festival, which celebrates a spreadable marshmallow treat (an acquired taste) in its birthplace. Investments like these boost joy via our community joy pillars — including relationships and fun.
Bhutan is perhaps best known for measuring happiness; they developed Gross National Happiness and use happiness impacts to inform policy decisions. While Bhutan is not ranked among the world’s happiest nations, they do continue to make progress with their measure.
Britain also made progress (at least before the pandemic — and they’re regaining what they lost). This was during a time with an associated increase in perceptions of freedom and in social trust (relationships again). American governments and institutions can pursue policies and approaches to reverse declining perceptions of freedom and social trust here — and hopefully help boost happiness.
If governments measure and intentionally work to increase happiness, they can actually increase it. However, governments can’t do it alone . . .
Nonprofits and other infrastructure
As Arthur Brooks quoted Danish politician Mogens Lykketoft, “Government cannot bring happiness, but it can eliminate the sources of unhappiness.” In eliminating sources of unhappiness — and supporting conditions for happiness to bloom, government can make a huge difference. But others need to be involved in work to cultivate joyful communities.
Many nonprofits with the word “joy” in their names lead important work supporting underserved communities. A few, including East Boston Social Centers, even intentionally work to cultivate real and sustained increases in joy as we define it. However, the nonprofit movement to increase joy remains not-even-nascent.
As we work to measurably increase joy in community at East Boston Social Centers, the Shah Family Foundation, and Tom O’Brien, whom we are honoring this fall, have been pioneering supporters of this vision. While some foundations support happiness research and support mental health once people reach crisis, we have found no foundations that explicitly discuss joy or happiness as part of their strategy or work. (Please let us know if we are missing any.)
Other nonprofits can join our movement to significantly, measurably increase joy in community — and thereby strengthen democracy, increase life expectancy, and address the current mental health crisis. A funding infrastructure will enable this work.
Now that we’ve examined some work to date and a few ideas. . .
. . . Let’s get to more specifics: How sectors can support community joy —
Policymakers —
Measure it
· Measure joy. Work to increase it
· Take an approach informed by utilitarianism; choose policies to create the greatest increase in happiness for the greatest number
· Launch Happiness Offices to score proposed policies for joy impact, just as the Congressional Budget Office scores them on financial impact. Consider joy impacts in decisionmaking
Build structures for it
· Develop city, state, and federal cabinet-level positions to work across departments and advance the evidence-informed pursuit of Happiness
· Remove barriers to voting and citizen engagement in government. Consider participatory budgeting
Support it
· Start with this blog post on strengthening social infrastructure. Implement policies to proactively increase happiness — such as supporting block parties
· Fund public health approaches to mental health (Foundations can do this too)
Media
· Advance positive journalism
· Restore balance; report more stories that reinforce (rather than destroy) trust among people and between people and institutions — while continuing to hold people and institutions accountable
· Social media: change algorithms to bring more positive and unifying stories to feeds
Education
The early years
· Expand civics education. Discuss the philosophy of government. Include conversations on happiness
Higher education
· Incorporate robust discussions of the pursuit of Happiness in law school curricula
· Bring courses and conferences on happiness to policy schools
· Collaborate with government to measure joy impacts of policies
Add your suggestions below.
The pursuit of Happiness at 247: we made great progress, then lost some. Let’s do better, together!
This is the 24th post about boosting joy the only way we can: in community. Please share, subscribe (https://medium.com/@justinpasquariello), and join our movement by emailing me or supporting East Boston Social Centers: https://www.ebsocialcenters.org/support
[1] Here we capitalize “Happiness” when talking about the pursuit thereof, as the Declaration of Independence did. In this post, we largely use the word “happiness” as the founders did; today, it could most closely be translated as “community joy”.
