John de Graaf

Latest Posts in John de Graaf

Well-Being and Happiness

WELL-BEING AND HAPPINESS—AN ATTEMPT AT DEFINITIONS

These days, there seems to be a growing consensus that the old measurements that nations have used to evaluate economic success—most notably, the Gross Domestic Product—are blunt swords which tell us little about quality of life.  Around the world, many countries are looking for new metrics.  In October, I joined 1400 people from 60 countries at the OECD’s annual Measuring Well-...


Polarized Pets…and Stressed-Out Kids

Inequality isn’t just bad for people.  It also affects our companion animals.   In the modern American economy, some workers have become money-rich and time-poor.  Others, who lost jobs or were downsized during the recent recession, became time richer but money poor.  And many Americans, forced to work multiple jobs to make ends meet are poor in both time and money.  In each case, pets are affected. 

In the first case,...


BLACK FRIDAY IS BUY NOTHING DAY

Black Friday is coming.  You’d have to have been living in a hole not to know that means the day after Thanksgiving, when most businesses are closed but all the stores are open for business.  It’s when the big holiday sales used to begin—now they begin on Thanksgiving itself; it seems we can’t take a single day just to be with each other and refrain from shopping. 

But Black Friday is when the crush comes, when, some years,...