Book Review The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being By William Davies 'Happiness is the ultimate goal because it is self-evidently good. If we are asked why happiness matters we can give no further external reason. It just obviously does matter.' This pronouncement by Richard Layard, an economist and advocate of 'positive psychology', summarises the beliefs of many people today. For Layard and others like him, it is obvious that the purpose of government is to promote a state of collective well-being. The only question is how to achieve it, and here positive psychology — a supposed science that not only identifies what makes people happy but also allows their happiness to be measured — can show the way. Equipped with this science, they say, governments can secure happiness in society in a way they never could in the past. It is an astonishingly crude and simple-minded way of thinking, and for that ver...