Sarkozy’s happiness and well-being at the G20

Next week the G20 summit will start at Pittsburgh. One of the assistants will be President Sarkozy from France. As Keyboard Politics published on September 2nd, the French president had a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel from Germany at which time he said “We want to see things changed in Pittsburgh.” He was mostly talking about the banks and their bonuses. He was so serious about it that his office has just let it known that if his plans are not endorsed by other world leaders he plans to walk out of the summit. But that is not the only thing he wants changed. He said that he would lead a “fight” to remove the “cult of figures” and the “cult of the market” from international definitions of progress and achievement. Having asked two Noble prize-winning economists-Joseph Stiglitz and Armatya Sen- for a report about the importance of levels of happiness as an economic indicator, Sarkozy suggested that the measure of political success include happiness and well-being as well as growth.
Among well-being are included “leisure time” and the “quality of public service.” I am afraid that while this could be well received in many countries, in the United States where many people still confuse leisure time with laziness and public service with welfare or even socialism, Nicolas Sarkozy’s ideas are not going to be well received or even understood. And yet, isn’t human happiness what we should all want?