Interesting.

This does however, mean alot of people will be very unhappy:

In a paper published in the international Journal of Happiness Studies entitled “What Makes for a Merry Christmas?”, academics Tim Kasser and Kennon M. Sheldon identify seven typical experiences that are associated with Christmas, ranging from attending church to shopping for presents, and from surveys conducted after the Christmas period endeavoured to work out the extent to which each experience contributed to the happiness of those interviewed.

What Kasser and Sheldon found was that on average the individuals surveyed reported significantly lower levels of happiness when spending money and receiving gifts was treated as a major part of the Christmas experience. Moreover, the individuals who were the happiest during the Christmas holiday were those for whom being with family and or religious observance was a major part of Christmas.

According to Kasser and Sheldon, “the path to a merry Christmas comes not from purchasing many expensive gifts at the mall, wrapping them and placing them under the tree, but instead from satisfying deeper needs to be close to one’s family and finding meaning in life”.

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3965

Thanks Nigel.
Instinctively, I think that research is probably right. Warmth and closeness is usually more rewarding then gift giving -- though of course ritual gift-giving has been part of human society for millenia.
But all of this gets back to the values that underlie political beliefs -- and it was the bald faced crassness of Overington's column that rocked me. Kind of like spitting in the eye of every one who has ever been critical of the free market, from George pell to Bob Brown....

The great thing about a free society is that you can do what you like for any reason at all (consistent with other people's rights).

There is not really a division between people who support free trade and people who support humane and civilised values. The real division is between people who see free trade as an essential adjunct to civilised values and those who think that Governments should support special interests to do other people down and incidentally undermine the freedom and vitality of society.

1. One thing that is lacking is more attention to cause and effect, to the reasons for particular outcomes you deal with. We need to know more often than is indicated why things happen as they do so they can be addressed.
2. As you say, there are significant changes happening in the economic system that move the system further to the 'Right". What are behind these changes, what causative factors, and what are the results? I suggest that many of our social ills result from the excesses of capitalist system itself. One of these is the massive and growing concentration of corporate and individual wealth. I also suggest that behind the current discourse
favouring a growth economy is international competition stimulating Australia to become embroiled within globalisation, the World Trade Organization, etc. How do you deal with this?
3.The book often points to markets and economic theory favouring a free market economy. It needs to be to pointed out that one of the defining characteristics of the U.S. and Australian economies is that they are not free but contain monopolies, oligopolies and all sorts of subsidies to favoured industries. It would be wise to make a reference to this important feature.
4. Finally, there should be at the end of the book a section devoted to a research agenda that would assist in supporting the analysis and conclusions or furthering the study of these important issues. Many of the positive improvements in past years have followed systematic and authoritative research studies. Past studies into feminism and the environment come to mind.

An excellent book. Keep writing.

David