u-Bob

Ah the pseudoscience that is called "happiness research". It's the latest fad in Marxist circles. The idea that one can somehow measure happiness. For some strange reason all those "happiness research" studies all conclude that "more freedom and a higher standard of living doesn't make people more happy" and that "more government intervention in people's lives doesn't make them less happy". I wonder why.

In an earlier post in this thread I explained how value is subjective not objective. I'll refer to that post (the one with the Carl Menger quote) and add the following copy/paste from mises.org (I'm aware of the fact that a lot of people simply won't read it because of the source):

There is no way to measure an increase or decrease in happiness or satisfaction; not only between different people, it is not possible to measure change in the happiness of one given person.

In order for any measurement to be possible, there must be an eternally fixed and objectively given unit with which other units may be compared. There is no such objective unit in the field of human valuation. The individual must determine subjectively for himself whether he is better or worse off as a result of any change. His preference can only be expressed in terms of simple choice, or rank. Thus, he can say, "I am better off" or "I am happier" because he went to a concert instead of playing bridge (or "I will be better off" for going to the concert), but it would be completely meaningless for him to try to assign units to his preference and say, "I am two and a half times happier because of this choice than I would have been playing bridge." Two and a half times what? There is no possible unit of happiness that can be used for purposes of comparison and, hence, of addition or multiplication. Therefore, values cannot be measured; values or utilities cannot be added, subtracted, or multiplied. They can only be ranked as better or worse. A man may know that he is or will be happier or less happy, but not by "how much".

Accordingly, the numbers by which ends are ranked on value scales are ordinal, not cardinal, numbers. Ordinal numbers are only ranked; they cannot be subject to the processes of measurement. Thus, in the above example, all we can say is that going to a concert is valued more than playing bridge, and either of these is valued more than watching the game. We cannot say that going to a concert is valued ?twice as much? as watching the game; the numbers two and four cannot be subject to processes of addition, multiplication, etc

How much we value something is subjective. It's through our choices that we express that we value one thing over another. It's through voluntary transactions that prices are established. And again: it's those prices that play a coordinating role in the economy.

Without prices, there's no way of knowing how much of a certain product will be needed and there's no way of knowing what products shouldn't be produced.