With other intellectuals it might be deemed churlish to ask who they have written for, and on what authority, but not so with Layard. In answer to the first question, this book is clearly targeted at economists, policy scientists, politicians and the self-help market. What is somewhat baffling is that Layard appears to believe that he has written a radical, even iconoclastic book, but as we shall explore in a moment, much of it remains within the conventional limits of economics, policy science, New Labour philosophy, and common sense. More troubling is the question of authority, because this is a fiercely moralistic book. As an economist and policy advisor, Layard is rightly revered, but his sophisticated handling of evidence does not in itself qualify him to supply society with its “single over-arching principle” as this book intends. To put these concerns another way, is this the book that New Labour needs, and is Layard the man to supply it?
Happiness begins with the presentation of a “devastating fact”, namely that income levels in Western societies have doubled, while happiness levels have remained the same. This is not simply a piece of cultural pessimism, according to Layard, but an empirically verifiable claim, based on surveys, interviews and a growing body of physiological evidence. Moreover, as the science of happiness develops, we are getting a much clearer idea of exactly what does and doesn’t make us happy. For Layard, this science represents the missing piece of Jeremy Bentham’s moral philosophy of ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number’: we are no longer guessing about what makes other people happy, we know.