Emeritus Professor Ruut Veenhoven, who is affiliated with the Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization of Erasmus University Rotterdam, knows all about happiness. But even a happiness professor sometimes has bad luck.
Two months ago the Professor was diagnosed with Kahler disease, a form of cancer. His prospects are limited, with a little bit of luck and use of medications he has five more years to live.
Ruut became a happiness Professor by accident. In the sixties he wrote a paper about welfare, at that time a current topic. His paper was published and even reprinted. That’s how he got stuck in the science.
A scientific approach is accomplished by asking people to give their lives a mark and compare these outcomes. In the Netherlands we are quite happy. In the last ten years we scored our feeling of happiness with an average of 7.6.
His definition of happiness is life satisfaction. If you will feel happy, has to do with the extent to which your needs are fulfilled.
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Algemeen Dagblag, 7 September 2019. Read the article above for more information (in Dutch).
