A new select committee on happiness holds its first hearing to figure out how to make Californians happier.
We’re a big state with big challenges. Each morning we explain the top issues and how Californians are trying to solve them.One weekly email, all the Golden State newsGet the news that matters to all Californians. Start every week informed.Assemblymember Anthony Rendon, chairperson of the Select Committee on Happiness and Public Policy Outcomes, listens to a speaker during a hearing at the state Capitol in Sacramento on March 12, 2024.
And while Rendon told CalMatters that not all ways to boost happiness would be a “government directive,” a country that ranks high in happiness with a strong social safety net “pretty much jives with my political ideology.” The hearing was, for the most part, optimistic. Panelists espoused how increasing happiness benefited the greater good: Happy people live longer, are healthier, more successful at work and are more likely to volunteer.
But at times, the grave consequences of an unhappy public came to the forefront — particularly when legislators spoke about the “ripple effects” on mental health, depression and crime., a Santa Clarita Valley Democrat and committee member: “You don’t have kids walking into schools with guns to shoot people if they’re happy, you know?”Lynn La is the WhatMatters newsletter writer. Prior to joining CalMatters, she developed thought leadership at an edtech company and was a senior editor at CNET.
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