The Government Can Buy Me Happiness

Will Wilkinson (yes, I know I link to him a lot) has a brilliant little piece on how some people's ideas about what will create happiness often fall very nicely in line with their a priori political assumptions. So yes, I suppose for those people, all these government programs will make them happier, since they'll have "won" in the ideological battle for supremecy. Even if nobody else is really any happier (which is of course the likely outcome - besides dismal failure, of course).