Patrick Hosking wrote a fine satirical piece in the Times business pages on Saturday about David Cameron’s proposed new Happiness Index.
He imagines how quickly the City will find ways of making money out of it.
There will be new financial instruments called Collateralised Happiness Obligations.
Even pension funds are persuaded: ‘They’d bought the diversification argument as easily as toddlers in a sweet shop.’
The Bank of England will acquire a new responsibility for the Happiness Policy Committee.
And, things being the way they are, no matter whether the British people say they are more happy or more miserable this month, the traders will win a big fat bonus.
The whole article is available to subscribers to the Times website. I have been wondering if it might not be possible one day soon to be able to buy slivers of websites without being a subscriber, similar to the way that workers who cannot commit to long-term contracted hours can now offer slivers of their time to employers. Tesco announced last week that they will be offering this facility to help their employees manage their overtime.
