The Happiness State and Nunavut's Inuit

The Happiness State coming to Canada?

On the website of the newly created Ludwig Von Mises Institute of Canada (awesome!), George Bragues posted the above blog regarding the possibility of individual happiness becoming a goal of government policy. Brague summarized his main concerns as follows:

"[Because] the wealthy supposedly do not get much additional happiness from all their money, while the less well-to-do can, let’s [through government intervention] redistribute incomes. That will augment the over-all level of happiness. And since, we’ll all be more equal as a result, people won’t be so dissatisfied by how they stand relative to others. Not only that, if people can be encouraged to become less avaricious, they can get off the so-called “hedonic treadmill” and focus instead on their families, friends, and communities."

I posted this response (with some revisions for my blog):

Talking about redistribution of wealth policies, what we need is an empirical analysis of the 'money for nothing' policy of Canada's Inuit people. Several of the communities in Nunavut have had been in a sustained state of welfare (i.e., over 50% on Social Assistance) since at least the 80s, if not longer. When I worked with Gov't of the NWT in the 90s, some communities had welfare rates of 80%.

Interested to see what the current statistics were, the Internet was very obliging. For 2010/11, the estimated transfer payment from the Federal gov't to Nunavut is 1.2 billion, which is $35,000 per person. (The NWT is not much better at $23,000 per person.) From 2001-2004, about 8,000 people per year have received Social Assistance (i.e., welfare payments) in Nunavut. That's about 25% of the population of Nunavut (In 2006, the population of Nunavut was 29,474,with 24,640 people identifying themselves as Inuit.)

Do we see an increase in happiness of the Inuit of Nunavut? Inuit suicide rates are more than 11 times higher than the Canadian rate, according to Health Canada. And 83% of these are people under 30 years of age.

This statistic is probably the tip of the ice berg of the state of well-being of Nunavut people. If anyone at the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada wants to do research on how chronic welfare destroys a person's (and culture's!) psychological well-being, Nunavut would be a place to study. 

Where the Bourgeois Virtues Are Found

Excerpt from Steven Horowitz's blog on The Freeman:


"Economic historian Deirdre McCloskey has just published the second volume [Bourgeois Dignity] of her multi-volume look at the history of capitalism and its relationship to the “bourgeois virtues.”  What she means by the latter are the basic virtues of the middle class, from prudence to love to justice.  What makes this approach interesting is that critics of capitalism have long suggested that there were very few virtues associated with the bourgeoisie, mostly because capitalism itself requires and encourages what they saw as the unvirtuous behavior related to greed and self-interest.


In the first volume McCloskey convincingly argues that market relationships civilize us and lead us to treat one another, especially strangers, with openness and kindness, which was previously unknown in history.  In the words of economic anthropologist Paul Seabright, markets turn strangers into “honorary kin.”

Markets do this because they encourage us to treat others as equals in that we approach them, especially strangers, most often as traders.  They have rights to their property, we have rights to ours, and those rights limit the ways we can interact. But they leave exchange available as a way to get the things we want.  The mutuality and reciprocity of exchange both require and encourage us to treat one another humanely, with justice, and as equals.  In other words, markets lead us to treat strangers as fully human."

Link to full blog:
Where the Bourgeois Virtues Are Found | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty:"Economic historian Deirdre McCloskey"

I've just begun reading The Bourgeois Virtues on Amazon's Kindle, which I've had since Christmas 2009, but have only recently begun purchasing volumes and using it. I particularly like the automatic "bookmark" function. Anyway, promoting Kindle aside, McCloskey's writing style is loose and conversational, which is radically different from other economics, philosophy, and history books I've read.  Reviews of The Bourgeous Virtues have been mixed. Most giving it high ratings, but don't find her evidence all that compelling and complain that her writing is a bit scattered. Reviewers are hopeful that she will answer their questions in her next 3 volumes in the series, with the 2nd volume, Bourgeous Dignity, soon to be available. Reading the reviews has convinced me to also get Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments. McCloskey views her 4 volumes as a modern day version of Smith's work.

I remember Objectivist-friendly philosopher George H. Smith (most known for Atheism: The Case Against God ) recommending The Theory of Moral Sentiments many years ago. Those not familiar with Objectivism, the philosophy attempts to provide a internally consistent framework between the ethics of self-interest, the practice of certain virtues (rationality, pride/self-esteem, benevolence, integrity, justice, purpose/productivity), and the political system of libertarianism (i.e., private property, rule of law, & free markets). Given my affinity for Objectivism, I am hopeful McCloskey's works provide further elaboration for the links between virtue and capitalism, especially in the area of historical evidence. When I'm done, I'll share my thoughts as to whether McCloskey's work accomplishes that.