The issue of false consciousness is a genuinely difficult problem that has no definite solution. We should not approve of an unequal and brutal society because surveys show that people are happy. But who has the right to tell those oppressed women or starving landless peasants that they shouldnt be happy, if they think they are? Does anyone have the right to make those people feel miserable by telling them the truth? There are no easy answers to these questions, but they definitely tell us that we cannot rely on subjective happiness surveys to decide how well people are doing.
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About Ha-Joon Chang
Ha-Joon Chang was a contemporary Korean south korean economist. Ha-Joon Chang is a South Korean economist and academic. Chang specialises in institutional economics and development, and lectured in economics at the University of Cambridge from 1990–2021 before becoming professor of economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 2022. Read more on Wikipedia →
Themes
- Happiness — Thoughts on finding joy, contentment, and fulfilment