Comment: "Time Use and Subjective Well-being in France and the US"

Abstract

This is a timely and well written article. There has been global dissatisfaction with existing measures of human progress. A broad theme of the article is a claim that the U-index is a superior metric of well-being than the conventional measures of progress. The basic premise of the article seems to be that societies differ in the extent that they make it possible for individuals to avoid unpleasant activities. The authors generally do a good job of explaining how they attempt to measure and summarize the inverse of happiness/pleasure. The results, based on a single location in each nation, suggest that French (women) do better than American (women) because their society allows them to allocate their time in way that avoids spending time in some of the more painful activities. Over the past 40 years the lives of American men have involved less pain, i.e., has improved. While these results are intriguing there are still a number of elementary questions about the U-index that remain unanswered.