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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that it's not the job of government to make people happy?

64 replies

FloPen · 16/10/2018 19:27

This is on the back of a programme on loneliness on r4 this morning. There seemed to be a general consensus that it's a responsibility of the government to make people happy. So, money to be spent on consultants, commissions etc.
Surely the job of government is to keep the peace, mend the roads, and otherwise create a framework where people can be happy. But it's not their job to ensure that they are?

OP posts:
Ifailed · 17/10/2018 08:12

no, it's not their job to make people happy and it's usually just an example of the magician's misdirection.

hipposarerad · 17/10/2018 08:14

Additionally to what the pp said, it would be nice if they could refrain from implementing policies that lead to misery for many people (I'm talking about the UC clusterfuck, work capability assessments and the like).

Neshoma · 17/10/2018 08:15

I agree but you're on the wrong forum.

hipposarerad · 17/10/2018 08:16

When I said pp I meant TeaStory. I'm not clear what Ifailed means by magician.

Neshoma · 17/10/2018 08:18

The trouble is there are a lot of unhappy people too (according to MN). They are all 'woe is me - You! do something for me as I cba'

noego · 17/10/2018 08:25

Happiness is the responsibility of the individual. Realising their own self worth. Having boundaries so that the status quo is not upset. Creating an environment of happiness around them irrespective of what government does or in fact any institution.

Ennirem · 17/10/2018 08:33

No it's not, but it is to implement policies which create a society in which people are best able to find happiness. The current status quo results in a risk of being ever more atomised, particularly when elderly or ill. The neo-liberal, turbo-capitalist dogma pushed through current policies of the last ten years particularly but more broadly those of the last 30 plus years seem almost designed to engender that result. Social value is rooted almost entirely in one's activity as a unit of economic activity - how much money you can 'make', how much shite you can buy. Jobs are hard to get, hard to keep, and poorly paid in the main, except some at the top tier which are grotesquely overremunerated, resulting in gaping economic inequalities which heighten the pressure on those at the bottom to 'make money' to come closer to a luxurious standard of living which is presented as the norm/the goal. The basics required by the lower tiers of Maslow's hierarchy - housing, power, water, healthcare - are hard to obtain and overpriced due to artificial scarcity. All of these things are areas the government has a hand in which they have been resolutely washing Pilate-style for decades, allowing their friends in big business free rein to capitalise from this state of affairs.

This has resulted in families being separated in the relentless search for adequate resources as generations move further and further away from each other in search of a job or housing when younger, or an affordable retirement when older. It has broken down community ties as we all become migrants, both internally and externally, the relentless churn especially in cities as people endlessly move from job to job and from home to home as their market rent outstrips their static salary hardly conducive to the forming of attachment to place or the fulfilment of caring obligations to family outside our immediate household. Not to mention the impossibility of people being able to save for a home means people are waiting later and later to have children, leaving them in relationships which don't have that cement of family or co-ownership to motivate sticking together when times are hard, meaning more people than ever are single late into adulthood.

Wow.

Basically, no it is not the responsibility of government to go round every little lonely old lady's house and give her team and sympathy and meaning in her life. But it is their responsibility not to engender an epidemic of atomised, halted, fractured communities by their actions and inactions.

TeaStory · 17/10/2018 08:49

I completely agree with @hipposarerad and @Ennirem. Many of the biggest factors causing misery are beyond the individual’s control.

Jellycatspyjamas · 17/10/2018 08:53

There wouid be considerably less lonely people if the government hadn’t cut funding to services that promote community engagement, social support and provide public amenities. Cuts to libraries, community centres, day centres, individualised personal care, third sector cuts all mean fewer and fewer opportunities for folk to make connections with others.

All the government strategy is doing is passing on responsibility for the welfare of vulnerable people to occupations who aren’t trained to care and certainly aren’t paid to do it, instead of paying to provide actual qualified care or creating a society where families can afford to live in close proximity if they want to. It’s the natural progression of Care in the Community and what we as a society have voted for.

AmIRightOrAMeringue · 17/10/2018 08:56

Agree with some of the above comments. It's not the government's job but it is in everyone's best interests if society is happier so it is their job to prevent situations that cause unhappiness.

Loneliness has lots of impacts on society - it makes people more ill and also they are more likely to waste NHS resources for example the old lady who goes to the doctors every day for someone to talk to or calls an ambulance for routine hospital visits as she has no one to take her, or the man who can't be discharged from hospital because he has no one at home to care for him

Whilst this may not be the government fault at an individual level, these people may have no one to help them because they had to move away to find work as their area hasn't had any investment in jobs, or they can't get out because infrastructure is so poor or its unsafe, or all their family is working past retirement age to make ends meet so there is no one to help them day to day. The government does need to take some responsibility for this surely

SnuggyBuggy · 17/10/2018 09:03

What Hippo said

Thisreallyisafarce · 17/10/2018 09:04

It is the job of government to tackle mental health crises in its population.

IAmALamp · 17/10/2018 09:11

Applause for Ennirem

AmIRightOrAMeringue · 17/10/2018 09:38

And they used to run lots of day centres but local councils have had their funding cut so much that more than half I think have closed so now run by volunteers. So it's not surprising loneliness has increased

FlowThroughIt · 17/10/2018 09:42

It's not anyone else's responsibility to make you happy.

LaurieFairyCake · 17/10/2018 09:52

Yes, what Ennirem said

No one can really expect people in poverty to be happy can they?

I'm guessing that's a much rarer state.

OutPinked · 17/10/2018 09:54

Not their job to grind people down until they’re utterly miserable either but they do a great job of that.

DisrespectfulAdultFemale · 17/10/2018 09:58

it would be nice if they could refrain from implementing policies that lead to misery for many people

Agreed. Like the GRC and self-ID.

echt · 17/10/2018 09:58

It's not anyone's responsibility to make another person happy.

This is an example of the lazy thinking that infests MN and much of life: he/she/they made me feel..etc. No they didn't. They did what they did. Deal with the behaviour. Your feelings are your own.

canyouhearthedrums · 17/10/2018 10:02

It is the job of government to tackle mental health crises in its population

Is loneliness considered a MH issue? I'm following that R4 programme, and whilst there are some 'typical' lonely 90 year old isolated women speaking what struck me is the younger people who work FT, have what they describe as an active social life and friends, but they are incredibly lonely.

Thisreallyisafarce · 17/10/2018 11:40

canyouhearthedrums

I don't think loneliness is a MH issue, but it can certainly contribute to them or exacerbate them.

malificent7 · 17/10/2018 11:54

Well the kingdom of Bhutan has gross national happiness rather than gross national product or whatever it is...I think that's awesome.

FloPen · 17/10/2018 12:01

These initiatives could improve the health of the population and end up saving money overall.
To me, the operative word is 'could'. I'd rather spend money on things that we know work. Plus I believe that a shed load of money goes on 'experts' who have a vested interest in all this.
And, while I totally support the Welfare State, and am concerned about it's winding back. I feel that it has lead to people assuming that the government will sort this all out.

OP posts:
worridmum · 17/10/2018 12:05

Some people would say its nots the governments job to sort your childs education or for running health care or in some cases doing anything thats not related to national defence or law making.

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