A headlong rush to riches and unhappiness

Wellbeing comes from being connected and engaged, from being suspended in a web of relationships and interests, which give meaning to our lives. The intimacy, belonging and support provided by close personal relationships seem to matter most; isolation exacts the highest price.

Money and what it buys constitute only a part of what makes for a high quality of life. And the pursuit of wealth can exact a high cost when it is given too high a priority - nationally or personally - and so crowds out other, more important goals. The need to belong is more important than the need to be rich; meaning matters more than money.

Policies that make our working lives longer, harder or more insecure, and so increase pressures on families and other relationships, will diminish our wellbeing, however richer they make us.

Our politics is lagging far behind both scientific evidence and public opinion on what makes life worth living - a dangerous development for democracy.

When political leaders claim a strong, dynamic and growing economy is the overriding responsibility of government, and bend all else to this objective, we might ask them this: the bottom line of growing the economy at 3-4 per cent a year is that we will be, on average and in real terms, earning and consuming twice as much in 20-30 years as we are now. Should this really be our top priority as a nation?