Straatnieuws, a Dutch newspaper sold by homeless or poor individuals and produced mainly to support these populations, published an interview with Happiness Professor Ruut Veenhoven of the Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization of Erasmus University Rotterdam in its August/September edition. Prof. Veenhoven explains amongst others what can make us happy and what has gone wrong if you are so unhappy that you do not want to live anymore?
According to Professor Veenhoven, happy people do not think about the purpose of life. Only those who are unhappy usually do. And that question is not difficult to answer. The good news, however, is that we become happier once we become older. Because the life expectancy is rising, the level of happiness thus increases as well. That we become older therefore does not stand in the way of our happiness. You are quite happy when you are young or old. Often, it are the times in which you do not really have a goal in life, and thus when you do not 'need' to accomplish anything from yourself. However, the time in between, around your fortieth, is the low-point. It becomes more fun again when you have made a career, the children have moved out and when you have paid off your mortgage.