The Impossibility of measuring such abstractions is proved by David Cameron himself. To what extend do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile? David Cameron was posed this question on TV last month, he gave himself full marks 10 out of 10. One of the worthwhile things that he is now doing in his life is asking the same question of others. From this month, the Gobernment's Household Survey will demand to know not only how much we earn but how content we are. The Prime Minister wants to compile a "National Happiness Index" and he is not alone in feeling that there are more ways to measure the health of the nation than economics. "The time is ready for radical cultural change, away from a culture of selfishness and materialism " says its founder the LSE Eco. Richard Layard, who points out that 50 years of economic growth have done nothing for our happiness. Happinees maybe less arbitrary a measure than economic growth but it is not necessarily the most desirable alternative. Psychologist Adam Philips argues persuasively that children do not want solely to be happy: they want first to be safe and then to be absorbed.
