When I write about GDP, it’s generally to highlight the relationship between economic liberty and national prosperity.

If I’m feeling wonky, I sometimes write columns arguing that we should be more interested in gross domestic income rather than gross domestic product.

Today, let’s look at GDP and happiness.

Here’s a tweet showing that happiness and national income are correlated.

So why is GDP correlated with happiness?

The obvious answer is that people are more likely to feel good when they have more consumption.

And as shown in this chart, there’s an even stronger correlation between GDP and personal consumption (technically, the correlation is to “median daily expenditure”).

Note that I’m not making any bold claim about causality.

Indeed, I suppose one could make the argument that happier people produce more GDP rather than more GDP producing happier people.

Heck, some clowns even produced a study years ago claiming that higher taxes led to happier people.

Needless to say, I like the research showing the opposite outcome.

I’ll close with the should-be-obvious observation that many other factors such as family, friends, and community are incredibly important for human happiness. Life is about much more than having the biggest bank account.

However, I’d rather strive for family, friends, and community in South Korea rather than North Korea, in Switzerland rather than France, and in Chile rather than Venezuela.