Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Brazilian Lawmakers Consider "Happiness Bill"

The bill will force everyone to look like this.
From The Telegraph.
Today The Telegraph reports that Brazil may soon pass a "Gross National Happiness"-type of happiness bill, possibly in time for Carnival. The bill is currently in the Senate, which reconvened this week after Dilma Rousseff--the first woman president in Brazil's history--was inaugurated on New Year's Day.

A non-government group called the "Happier Movement" was largely responsible for getting the bill this far. Mauro Motoryn, director of the Happier Movement, says "Happiness isn’t a game, people confuse it with something that is superfluous and it isn’t. We need quality health care, which we don’t have. We need quality education, which we don’t have."

Unfortunately, the news story doesn't go into detail about what's actually in the bill, but if it's similar to other Gross National Happiness bills, it probably contains provisions for conducting a national survey of the nation's wellbeing. Remember to click here to read news about other countries who are adopting Gross National Happiness laws, because there are so many that it's honestly difficult to keep a running tally!

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