Essay: The genius of the founding fathers of the United States, happiness and labor productivity

Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson drafting the Declaration of Independence.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." - United States Declaration of Independence

Previously, I wrote the article The citizens of the United States are happier than the citizens of Russia and China. USA! USA! USA! which features the map below showing various happiness levels of countries according to the 2023 World Happiness Index.

According to the U.S. Labor Bureau of Statistics, labor productivity is a measure of economic performance that compares the amount of output with the amount of labor used to produce that output."

Fast Company's article Research shows happiness is the new performance indicator. This is how managers can support it indicates: "The Saïd Business School study Does Happiness Improve Worker Productivity? found that happiness can have a significant impact on productivity. Results showed that happier workers were 12% more productive than their unhappy counterparts." (See also: Happiness and Productivity, Journal of Labor Economics, Volume 33, Number 4).

In 2023, the USA was over 200% more productive in terms of labor productivity than Russia when measured using purchasing power parity. In 2023, the USA was over 400% more productive in terms of labor productivity than China when measured using purchasing power parity. See: The USA has one of the highest labor productivity rates in the world - significantly higher than both China and Russia

Investopedia says about the importance of labor productivity to an economy, "Labor productivity is largely driven by investment in capital, technological progress, and human capital development. Labor productivity is directly linked to improved standards of living in the form of higher consumption. As an economy's labor productivity grows, it produces more goods and services for the same amount of relative work. This increase in output makes it possible to consume more of the goods and services for an increasingly reasonable price."

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development states concerning labor productivity: "Labour productivity is a key precondition for high growth of output, employment and wages and central to long-term growth in living standards."

According to the World Happines Index of 2023, the citizens of the United States are happier than the citizens of Russia.

Labor productivity by country in 2024:

See also: The USA has one of the highest labor productivity rates in the world - significantly higher than both China and Russia

Investopedia says about the importance of labor productivity to an economy, "Labor productivity is largely driven by investment in capital, technological progress, and human capital development. Labor productivity is directly linked to improved standards of living in the form of higher consumption."

According to Yahoo Finance: "According to Yahoo Finance: "Efficiency in production, also coined as productivity, is one of the major driving forces behind economic resilience in a country."

The world map above gives the labor productivity rate by country in 2024.

See also: The USA has one of the highest labor productivity rates in the world - significantly higher than both China and Russia

Want to be more productive at work? Smile more often!

And if you want to be more productive at work, whistle while you work and think some happy thoughts during the workday.

"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..." - Proverbs 23:7.

If you think you are happy and think happy thoughts during the workday, you might find that you are happier and more productive at work!

Labor productivity, increased wealth and happiness

"Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.' - King Solomon (Proverbs 22:29)

See also: Labor productivity

According to Yahoo Finance: "Efficiency in production, also coined as productivity, is one of the major driving forces behind economic resilience in a country."

Investopedia indicates: "Education tends to raise productivity and creativity, as well as stimulate entrepreneurship and technological breakthroughs. All of these factors lead to greater output and economic growth."

In an economy, one of the causes of wage raises is an increase in marginal labor productivity rates.

Does money buy happiness? Or does happiness help produce wealth?

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania.

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania published an article entitled Does Money Buy Happiness? Here’s What the Research Says which states: "Reconciling previously contradictory results, researchers from Wharton and Princeton find a steady association between larger incomes and greater happiness for most people but a rise and plateau for an unhappy minority."

It's too bad that the researchers at Wharton didn't think about the possibility that happiness produces labor productivity which in turn often produces greater wealth.

Questions: Does money buy happiness? Or does happiness help produce wealth? The answer to these questions are a mystery. Stay tuned for further updates to this article!

Abstract: Journal of Labor Economics journal article Happiness and Productivity

The abstract for the journal article Happiness and Productivity published in the journal Journal of Labor Economics indicates:

“

Some firms say they care about the well-being and “happiness” of their employees. But are such claims hype or scientific good sense? We provide evidence, for a classic piece rate setting, that happiness makes people more productive. In three different styles of experiment, randomly selected individuals are made happier. The treated individuals have approximately 12% greater productivity. A fourth experiment studies major real-world shocks (bereavement and family illness). Lower happiness is systematically associated with lower productivity. These different forms of evidence, with complementary strengths and weaknesses, are consistent with the existence of a causal link between human well-being and human performance.

”

Russia, low labor productivity and the World Happiness Index

See also: Are the Russians as unhappy as they claim they are? and Happiness

In 2019, during his annual phone-in with the public in June this year, President Vladimir Putin described low productivity as “one of the most acute and important” problems facing Russia.

Currently, Russia has a significant labor productivity problem (See: Low labor productivity is one of the most acute and important problems facing Russia).

In 2023, Russia ranked 74 out of 150 countries on the World Happiness Index. The World Happiness Index 2023 Report will mark its 10th anniversary with the Globe Happiness Reflect, which compiles data from international surveys to show how people rank their lives in more than 150 countries. See: Are the Russians as unhappy as they claim they are?

According to Statista.com, the happiness index, calculated as the difference between shares of happy and unhappy people, reached 18 percent in Russia in 2021, down from 51 points in 2016. To compare, an average of 44 countries surveyed worldwide was measured at 43 percent in 2021, having increased from the previous year.

In 2023, Russia ranked 74 out of 150 countries on the World happiness index. The World Happiness Index 2023 Report will mark its 10th anniversary with the Globe Happiness Reflect, which compiles data from international surveys to show how people rank their lives in more than 150 countries.

According to Statista.com, the happiness index, calculated as the difference between shares of happy and unhappy people, reached 18 percent in Russia in 2021, down from 51 points in 2016. To compare, an average of 44 countries surveyed worldwide was measured at 43 percent in 2021, having increased from the previous year.

Are the Russians as unhappy as they claim they are? There are so many reasons why the Russians are unhappy! Don't miss out on all the reasons. Click the link below!

See also: Are the Russians as unhappy as they claim they are?

Please read: Are the Russians as unhappy as they claim they are?

China, labor productivity, atheism and happiness

Flag of China

See also: China has a labor productivity rate that is a WHOLE LOT LOWER than the labor productivity rate of the USA

Michael Beckley is an associate professor of political science at Tufts University and a Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute Beckley published the 2018 book Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World's Sole Superpower.

A Rand Corporation review of Beckley's book Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World's Sole Superpower indicates:

“

Beckley adduces an impressive amount and diversity of evidence in support of his argument. U.S. workers, for example, “generate roughly seven times the output of Chinese workers on average.” China's total factor productivity growth rate, meanwhile, “has actually turned negative in recent years, meaning that China is producing less output per unit of input each year,” and “roughly one-third of China's industrial production [goes] to waste.”

”

The Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions article Invisible China: Hundreds of Millions of Rural Underemployed May Slow China’s Growth indicates: "The share of uneducated workers in China's labor force is larger than that of virtually all middle-income countries. According to census data, there are roughly 500 million people in China between the ages of 18 and 65 without a high school degree."

China's labor productivity growth from 1953 to 2022.

China and state atheism

China has the largest atheist population in the world.

See also: China and atheism

China has the world's largest atheist population and practices state atheism. China has one of the highest rates of atheism in the world. According to a 2012 Worldwide Independent Network/Gallup International Association (WIN/GIA) poll, 47% of Chinese people were convinced atheists, and a further 30% were not religious. In comparison, only 14% considered themselves to be religious.

Atheism and unhappiness

See also: Atheism and happiness and Atheism and health

The prestigious Mayo Clinic found that that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better physical health, mental health, health-related quality of life and other health outcomes.

There is a significant amount of data indicating that atheists are more unhappy that theists (See: Atheism and happiness and Atheism and depression and Atheism and suicide and Atheism and negative emotions/thoughts).

China and unhappiness

In 2012, Time magazine reporting on a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by a team from the University of Southern California headed by economist Richard Easterlin:

“

Despite an unprecedented rate of economic growth, China’s life satisfaction over the past two decades has largely followed the trajectory seen in the central- and eastern-European transition countries — a decline followed by a recovery, with no change or a declining trend over the period as a whole. There is no evidence of a marked increase in life satisfaction in China of the magnitude that might have been expected based on the fourfold increase in the level of per capita consumption during that period. In its transition, China has shifted from one of the most egalitarian countries in terms of distribution of life satisfaction to one of the least egalitarian. Life satisfaction has declined markedly in the lowest-income and least-educated segments of the population, while rising somewhat in the upper (socioeconomic status) stratum.

”

Time magazine also indicated: "While China’s poorest are increasingly unhappy, it’s unlikely that the country will see Arab Spring–like unrest and revolt. The problems are too diffuse and the state security organs too adept at clamping down on acts of dissent that have the potential for wider appeal. But on a local level, protest is widespread, averaging about 500 a day nationwide, according to economist Niu Wenyuan, an adviser to China’s State Council."

Happiness and health

The five components of emotional intelligence are: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.

See also: Happiness and health and Emotional intelligence and Self-regulation and Emotion and Happiness

According to medical science, having an excessive amount of unhappiness in one's overall emotional life can have adverse effects on and individual. See also: Happiness and health

Emotional intelligence (EI) "refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions."

The five components of emotional intelligence are: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.

People with emotional intelligence can prevent an excessive amount/duration of negative emotional states such as unhappiness.

While it is not wise to have happiness/pleasure as an end goal (See: Hedonism and Paradox of Hedonism), governments should not go out of their way to cause unhappiness in its citizens because not only could it reduce labor productivity, but it could also adversely affect the health of its citizens.

Concerning happiness, according to Torrence Memorial hospital:

“

Healthy Facts About Happiness - Happiness improves your cardiac health. - Happy people are more likely to eat healthily and be more physically active. - Happiness strengthens your immune system. - Happy people are more productive and likely to succeed. - Being happy helps reduce your stress levels. - Happy people have fewer aches and pains. - Happiness helps combat disease and disability. - Happiness lengthens our lives.

”

Sick people often have lower labor productivity. Lower labor productivity in a society lowers its potential to fund its healthcare system.

Genius of the founding fathers of the United States

See also: Founding Fathers

• The Genius of the Constitution, Heritage Foundation
• First Principles: The genius of the Constitution, The Daily Star
• Genius of America: How the Constitution Saved Our Country and Why it Can Again, abstract. Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship
• Why the Founding Fathers Were Probably Smarter Than Us, CBN News (Video)
• Ben Franklin was a genius, The Gainsville Sun
• George Washington, Genius in Leadership, Washington Papers website

Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emmanuel Leutze, 1850

Protestant productivity: Its effect on colonial America, modern America and Western Civilization

See also: Protestant cultural legacies and Christianity and social stability and Protestantism and Western civilization

According to the Oxford Research Encyclopedias: "The theological and religious descendants of the Protestant Reformation arrived in the United States in the early 17th century, shaped American culture in the 18th century, grew dramatically in the 19th century, and continued to be the guardians of American religious life in the 20th century."

A majority of colonial Americans came from Britain. Protestantism had a large effect on the culture of Britain (See: The Reformation and British Society).

Niall Ferguson

The website Cultural Front notes:

“

In chapter 6 of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell highlights cultural legacies. He opens with disturbing descriptions of how longstanding cultural patterns and beliefs influenced violent conflicts among generations of families in Kentucky during the 19th century. The compelling research findings concerning long-term and deeply held values led Gladwell to the conclusion that cultural legacies are powerful forces. They have deep roots and long lives. They persist, generation after generation, virtually intact, even as the economic and social demographic conditions that spawned them have vanished, and they play such a role in directing attitudes and behavior that we cannot make sense of our world without them. He goes on to note the possibilities of “taking cultural legacies seriously” in order to learn “why people succeed and how to make people better.”

”

Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is a highly influential 1905 book by sociologist Max Weber. The ethic consists of hard work, disdain for leisure, competitive spirit and a profit motive to provide an incentive to achieve.

Despite being an atheist, Harvard University historian Niall Ferguson declared: "Through a mixture of hard work and thrift the Protestant societies of the North and West Atlantic achieved the most rapid economic growth in history."

The article The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries published in Christianity Today notes:

“

In his fifth year of graduate school, Woodberry created a statistical model that could test the connection between missionary work and the health of nations. He and a few research assistants spent two years coding data and refining their methods. They hoped to compute the lasting effect of missionaries, on average, worldwide... One morning, in a windowless, dusty computer lab lit by fluorescent bulbs, Woodberry ran the first big test. After he finished prepping the statistical program on his computer, he clicked "Enter" and then leaned forward to read the results. "I was shocked," says Woodberry. "It was like an atomic bomb. The impact of missions on global democracy was huge. I kept adding variables to the model—factors that people had been studying and writing about for the past 40 years—and they all got wiped out. It was amazing. I knew, then, I was on to something really important." Woodberry already had historical proof that missionaries had educated women and the poor, promoted widespread printing, led nationalist movements that empowered ordinary citizens, and fueled other key elements of democracy. Now the statistics were backing it up: Missionaries weren't just part of the picture. They were central to it... Areas where Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the past are on average more economically developed today, with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment (especially for women), and more robust membership in nongovernmental associations. In short: Want a blossoming democracy today? The solution is simple—if you have a time machine: Send a 19th-century missionary... ...at a conference presentation in 2002, Woodberry got a break. In the room sat Charles Harper Jr., then a vice president at the John Templeton Foundation, which was actively funding research on religion and social change. (Its grant recipients have included Christianity Today.) Three years later, Woodberry received half a million dollars from the foundation's Spiritual Capital Project, hired almost 50 research assistants, and set up a huge database project at the University of Texas, where he had taken a position in the sociology department. The team spent years amassing more statistical data and doing more historical analyses, further confirming his theory. ...Woodberry's historical and statistical work has finally captured glowing attention. A summation of his 14 years of research—published in 2012 in the American Political Science Review, the discipline's top journal—has won four major awards, including the prestigious Luebbert Article Award for best article in comparative politics. Its startling title: "The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy." ...over a dozen studies have confirmed Woodberry's findings. The growing body of research is beginning to change the way scholars, aid workers, and economists think about democracy and development.

”

Why has the West been so successful

See also: Why has the West been so successful?

Question: Are there very positive aspects of Western Civilization? If so, what are they?

The West:

• Why the West Won’t Collapse with Stephen Kotkin (Stephen Kotkin is an American historian, academic, and author.)

Western values:

• Why the West Won

• Why Has the West Been So Successful?

• China and Russia Are Giving Authoritarianism a Bad Name, April 18, 2022

• Why the West is Worth Saving - Konstantin Kisin

• The West: The Genius of Western Civilisation. A 6-part series

• Why Western Civilization Needs Christianity

• White supremacy is bad. Western culture isn’t.

In the above map, the Western World regions of the world are colored light blue.

There are countries in Asia that have adopted much of Western values such as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.

The above graphic comes from the video Why the West Won’t Collapse with Stephen Kotkin (Stephen Kotkin is an American historian, academic, and author.)

For more information, please see: Why has the West been so successful?

Book

The Genius of America: How the Constitution Saved Our Country--and Why It Can Again ‎by Eric Lane and Michael Oreskes. Bloomsbury USA; First Edition (September 18, 2007)

Copy of the United States Declaration of Independence

See also: United States Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence; the original is badly faded.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." - United States Declaration of Independence

User: Conservative's international politics essays

"When I was a boy, the priest, my uncle, carefully inculcated upon me this proverb, which I then learned and have ever since kept in my mind: 'Dico tibi verum, Libertas optima rerum; Nunquam servili, sub nexu vivito, fili.' 'I tell you a truth: Liberty is the best of things, my son; never live under any slavish bond." - William Wallace

• User: Conservative's international politics essays

General international politics essays

• The myth of multipolarity. What do the terms unipolar, bipolar and multipolar mean as far as international relations?
• Why did so many self-declared international relations experts miserably fail concerning their multipolar fantasy?
• What drives Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin?
• Why has the West been so successful?
• The 2023 BRICS Summit was a bunch of hoopla. We still don't live in a multipolar world.
• The wreck of the HMS Multipolar World Fantasy - Humor
• The anti-Christianity Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Joseph Stalin and Xi Jinping have opposed homosexuality so this isn't a very high moral bar for China and Russia to clear

The United States

• The United States will be the leading power in the world for the foreseeable future
• The USA has one of the highest labor productivity rates in the world - significantly higher than both China and Russia
• Is the USA an economic powerhouse and juggernaut?
• Size of a working age population in a country and its correlation with national GNP in advanced economies. The ability of the United States to attract some of the best and brightest workers in the world
• Top 12 reasons why people are flocking to the USA and leaving the corrupt, authoritarian countries of China and Russia
• Isolationalism is growing in the United States. Is this a good thing?
• The USA is outproducing Russia and Saudi Arabia in oil production. The best is yet to come
• The USA can reduce its national debt. It has done it before
• The citizens of the United States are happier than the citizens of Russia and China. USA! USA! USA!
• The U.S. Navy is the most powerful navy in the world
• Gold reserves by country. The USA is still golden!
• Why I am glad that Conservapedia has an American flag in its logo rather than a Chinese or Russian flag
• The USA will become bigger, better and stronger than ever before! Russia and China will not! USA! USA! USA! - Humor
• Attention all hyper Sinophiles/Russophiles. The USA being better than China and Russia is an incredibly low bar for Americans to jump over!

China

• Skepticism about China remaining a global power

• The rising rule of communist idiocracy in China

Russia

• Why I am not bullish on Russia's future

• Vladimir Putin is a corrupt kleptocrat and an authoritarian

• Russia is dying out. The war in Ukraine is making Russia's demographic crisis even worse

• Vladimir Putin's foolish decision to launch an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022

• Russian war crimes in Ukraine

• Russian oil: Lower future production/profits due to future higher extraction costs and other inefficiencies

• Russia's economy and gas and oil profits will be BADLY damaged when China's economy declines

• China's economic decline will contribute to Russia's decline

• Russia's neo-Nazi problem belies one of Putin's rationales for the war in Ukraine

• Russia has the 2nd highest rate of alcoholism in the world

Vladimir Putin in a KGB uniform.

See also: Vladimir Putin is a corrupt kleptocrat and an authoritarian

• Low labor productivity is one of the most acute and important problems facing Russia

• The future of Russia. The kings of wishful thinking versus a more realistic scenario

• Russia getting pummeled in wars in Russian history that hyper Russophiles will not tell you about

• The war in Ukraine and Western sanctions will significantly hurt the Russian economy

• Russia's economy will enter a long-term decline

• Are the Russians as unhappy as they claim they are?

• Russia has the 3rd highest rate of divorce in the world

• Is Vladimir Putin a beacon of family values or a complete failure in this matter?

• Is Vladimir Putin a manchild or a macho genius?

• Search results for "Russia demographics crisis" using the Russian search engine Yandex and Google Scholar. Fanatical Russophiles weep for Mother Russia who has a low fertility rate that is far below a replacement level of births

• Do you strongly believe in gun rights? Don't move to Russia!

• Nordsteam pipelines being sabotaged and Putin failing to play politics several moves ahead on the politics chess board

• Doomsday phobias - including nucleomituphobia caused by Russian threats to use a nuclear bomb

• Essay: Russian Statistics Service indicates that 22.6 percent of Russian households aren't connected to a sewer system

• Vladimir Putin understimates small opponents - big time! - Humor

• There is no evidence that Vladimir Putin plays chess - Humor

• Why a Westerner falling for Russian propaganda is like a man who is seduced by a corrupt 300 pound woman - Humor

War in Ukraine

• How long will the war in Ukraine last and what will its likely outcomes will be? A prediction on its outcomes

• The SPECIFIC MONTH OF APRIL 2022 was not a pivotal point in politics that will affect politics for 30 years

• Why exceedingly few people in the world endlessly obsess about the date of April 9, 2020