In your plug for Arthur Brook’s Gross National Happiness (New York: Basic Books, 2008) you cheerfully parrot him by claiming that American conservatives are happier than liberals (“The Joys of Parenthood,” March 29, 2008). Apparently, married and religious people are the happiest of all. This is supposedly buttressed by “oceans” of data going back some thirty-five years. Although you mix up happiness and satisfaction once again (“Where Money Seems to Talk,” July 14, 2007), this time you go a step farther by neglecting the key intellectual, educational, and cultural characteristics of those canvassed. Here you most likely follow Brooks, an economist from Syracuse University. As the Latin proverb goes, ignoti nulla cupido—there is no desire for that which is unknown. That is, our wants are increased by knowledge. In this regard, an uneducated hick will tend to be “happier” than a sophisticated urbanite. To outdo Brooks, an idle researcher should canvass the few “savages” that still linger around the world, for they are sure to be much happier than Americans. And by a wide margin.