The document is a report called the "Make Seattle Happy Report" that provides a blueprint for raising awareness in communities about the importance of happiness and well-being. It includes quotes from political and historical figures about how happiness should be a goal of government and society. The report encourages measuring happiness and well-being in addition to economic metrics like GDP. It aims to spark discussion about new economic models focused on improving lives rather than just economic growth.

1. Make Seattle Happy Report:
A Blueprint for Raising
Awareness in Your Community
about the importance of happiness as a guide
for the future of our nation, neighborhoods
and personal life
QUOTES

2. Is happiness the business of
government?
Is happiness important?
A few quotes...

3. To those who say this sounds like a
distraction from the serious business
of government, I say finding out what
will improve lives and acting on it is the
serious business of government.
We'll continue to measure gross
domestic product. But it is high time
we admitted that, taken on its own,
GDP is an incomplete way of
measuring a country's progress.
David Cameron
Prime Minister of Great Britain
How happy are you? How happy is your city?
HappyCounts.org

4. Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence
and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross
national product ... if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution and
cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts
special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the
destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic
sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for
police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife,
and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our
children.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the
quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty
of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public
debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our
courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our
devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which
makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we
are proud that we are Americans.
- Robert Kennedy
How happy are you? How happy is your city?
HappyCounts.org

5. When I was 5 years old, my
mother always told me that
happiness was the key to
life. When I went to school,
they asked me what I
wanted to be when I grew
up. I wrote down ‘happy’.
They told me I didn’t
understand the assignment,
and I told them they didn’t
understand life.
– John Lennon
How happy are you? How happy is your city?
HappyCounts.org

6. “The care of human life
and happiness, and not
their destruction, is the
only legitimate object of
good government.”
Thomas Jefferson
How happy are you? How happy is your city?
HappyCounts.org

7. “The only orthodox object
of the institution of
government is to secure
the greatest degree of
happiness possible to the
general mass of those
associated under it.”
Thomas Jefferson
How happy are you? How happy is your city?
HappyCounts.org

8. “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
them are Life, Liberty and Pursuit
of Happiness. ”
Thomas Jefferson
The Declaration of Independence
How happy are you? How happy is your city?
HappyCounts.org

9. How happy are you? How happy is your city? HappyCounts.org
“Happiness of
society is the end
of government.”
John Adams

10. How happy are you? How happy is your city?
HappyCounts.org
“The aggregate
happiness of the society,
which is best promoted
by the practice of a
virtuous policy, is, or
ought to be, the end of
all government…”
George Washington

11. How happy are you? How happy is your city?
HappyCounts.org
“Happiness is the
meaning and the
purpose of life, the
whole aim and end of
human existence.”
Aristotle

12. Make Seattle Happy: A Blueprint for Raising
Awareness in Your Community.
Please use these materials to raise awareness about the
importance of happiness and well-being, the happiness
movement and the aim of a new economic paradigm.
These materials may be used or reproduced for any non-
commercial use. For more information, inquiries or
comments, please email info@happycounts.org or visit
happycounts.org
Report compiled by: Laura Musikanski, JD, MBA
Editing team: Eldan Goldenberg, James Bradbury
Copyright © The Happiness Initiative 2013