The article “How Happy Are You? A Census Wants to know ” by John Tierney is about how a suburb in Boston , Somerville, Mass. Is trying to track people’s happiness. And they are doing so by adding a couple of question on to their census , including “How satisfied are you with your life in general ? , In general how similar are you to other people you know ?” These questions are somewhat basic but are intended to get some specific answers. Well at least a good feel for what residents of this towns, happiness rate is. This information is meant to benefit the people, officials will take it and see if they can create relationships between the level of happiness and the environment. How much green space there is what can be added what can be taken out?
I don’t believe happiness can be measured , a scale can’t be set so that everyone can be divided into categories. There are levels to it. People can be happy but , their definitions of happy aren’t the same, so they won’t give off the same measure. Everyone has their own individual measure or scale of happiness. Different factors affect everybody . I believe that many people believe happiness can be promoted but in reality that isn’t true. We see commercials on t.v all the time that offer products and behind them are smiling faces, seeming to be content. But happiness is whatever you let it be, it cannot be promoted or advertised. What officials are trying to do in this town is a good idea, but its just a theory that they can measure happiness and control factors to raise it. Government tries to do so much already when it comes to peoples lifestyles, letting them think they can control your happiness is just not realistic. They shouldn’t try to change anything , promote it or measure it.
For my well-being, I believe feeling safe is so important, feeling comfortable, being able to move freely, communication, trust, honesty. As a community I believe it is important to be clean to pick up your garbage, keep the environment healthy. People in your community being healthy having doctors and hospitals as resources. To get along with people, have communication with people around you. Working together. There definitely could be conflicts between the well-being of an individual and the well-being of a community .But I believe there can be a middle ground where you can work around things.