Less is More - Sprout

I don't know Verne Harnish from Fern Varnish, but I think he did the math backwards in the below praise of collectivism. His own examples would more likely show that the closer you get to the individual, and away from the federal, we see fiscal responsibility. Additionally, there is plenty of evidence in psychology to show that the loss of a sense of control leads to unhappiness and neuroses, whereas a sense of personal control over your life breeds stability and contentment. So, as we support the individual, we are supporting both a better sense of accountability, and the ability to control outcomes, assuming the collective stays out of the way and doesn't try to enforce it's will on you. You could argue that those who are incompetent and lazy are not as happy in an environment of accountability, to which I would ask: "Why build a societal system based on the needs of the lazy?" Rather, build a system which promotes the lazy to act otherwise, and watch happiness grow. The US, associated with individualism more than any other country, continues to have outrageous immigration numbers, i.e. others seeking the "happiness of individual freedoms".

Less is More - Sprout: "Denmark was named the happiest place in the world. Noted Adrian White, an analytical social psychologist at the University of Leicester in central England, “smaller countries tend to be a little happier because there is a stronger sense of collectivism.'

Rereading Thomas Friedman’s classic From Beirut to Jerusalem, the world would be a lot happier if regional cultures hadn’t been forced to form artificial countries. Let Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon go the way of Yugoslavia, breaking up into more culturally aligned mini-countries. And I don’t think it’s coincidental that 42 of the U.S. states expect to run budget surpluses in 2006 while the Federal Government continues to bleed red. The less people lumped together in nation-states, the more fiscally responsible and happy. "