Socio political research is catching up, belatedly, with Norman Rockwell

From The Socio Political Demography of Happiness by Sam Peltzman.  From the Abstract:  

Since 1972 the General Social Survey (GSS) has asked a representative sample of US adults “… [are] you …very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?” Overall, the population is reasonably happy even after a mild recent decline. I focus on differences along standard socio demographic dimensions: age, race, gender, education, marital status income and geography. I also explore political and social differences. Being married is the most important differentiator with a 30-percentage point happy-unhappy gap over the unmarried. Income is also important, but Easterlin’s (1974) paradox applies: the rich are much happier than the poor at any moment, but income growth doesn’t matter. Education and racial differences are also consequential, though the black-white gap has narrowed substantially. Geographic, gender and age differences have been relatively unimportant, though old-age unhappiness may be emerging. Conservatives are distinctly happier than liberals as are people who trust others or the Federal government. All above differences survive control for other differences.

I am hitting it out of the ballpark.

Married

Well-off 

 

Classical Liberal (Conservative) 

 

Well educated

White

Trusting of others (Christianity)

Interestingly, out of the six significant factors, five of them are a matter of choice, including the most important factors.

So if an progressive autocratic central planner wanted maximize national happiness, what would be his or her advice about the things over which people have control.

Get married.

Work hard and productively.

Stick with tradition.

Go to church.

Get an education and be a life-long learner.

In other words, be a Norman Rockwell painting.  

This is the opposite of what they have been advocating for fifty years.  Either they don't know what they are doing or national happiness is an unimportant objective.