Economics of Happiness

Did you know that there is an equation for happiness? It is as follows:

H=R/E

Happiness equals reality divided by expectation. Makes sense right? Happiness will be a positive number so long as your expectations are not too high. But what does this suggest? That if we want to have a happy life then we need to have consistently low expectations?

You may think, "well what about not having any expectations?" This of course is impossible. Mathematically, E is always a real number because you cannot divide by zero. Realistically, no one has zero expectations. Despite the fact that we may say we do, we always secretly have some expectation in the back of our mind.

So what about the flip side of the equation? If you divide reality with expectation, you get a happiness quotient. What about when you invert this?

H=E/R

Expectation over Reality equals not happiness, but hope. Assuming reality is a constant, expectation has to be greater than reality to create optimism. In other words, when we expectations higher than reality, this is called having hope. This I believe goes along with my belief in blind faith. We shouldn't be afraid to dream simply because reality tells us that such things are impossible.


So how do you stand? Low standards for happiness? Or high standards for hope?