Fernando Alcoforado*
Knowing how to make choices of an economic, political and personal nature is very important in our lives since we can get good or bad results as a result of our decisions. As authors of our own history, we reap what we sow. Our decisions will be greatly compromised if they are made on the basis of our impulses. There must be rationality in our choices. The theory of rational choice was born in the area of economics trying to explain how people should make their decisions. This approach was then used in psychology, political science, and sociology, seeking to explain the mechanisms by which people choose some options and discard others. According to this theory, people always choose those options that imply less cost and greater benefit. All choices we make in life are made for the purpose of benefiting us from the decision taken from an individual, collective, or both perspective. The choice would be good if we achieved the desired benefits and would be bad if the reverse were true.
It is assumed that a person acts rationally by considering available information, probabilities of events and potential costs and benefits in determining preferences, and consistently pursues the best choice in their political and economic decision-making. In general, the rational decision in the political and economic fields involves compliance with nine steps to be considered by the decision maker: 1) Objectives to be pursued: what is intended to be achieved; 2) Alternatives to action: alternative paths to the achievement of objectives; 3) Preferences: subjective and / or objectives criteria used in the selection of alternatives; 4) Strategies: course of action for each selected alternative aiming at achieving the objectives considering the resources available; 5) Scenarios: Probable futures for the selected action alternatives considering the risk and uncertainty associated with each selected action alternative; 6) Results: degree of success of each alternative in achieving the objectives; 7) Evaluation with the comparison between the alternatives of action and its results; 8) Choice of the best alternative; and, 9) Implementation of the chosen alternative.
Choices of economic nature are those that involve decision making, for example, about individual, corporate and public investments. Rationality in choices of an economic nature requires that whoever decides about investments should be thoroughly knowledgeable about the subject matter of decision and should have all the information necessary to make the decision to make the best choice according to the criteria presented above. In addition to being qualified to make the most appropriate choice of economic nature, it is crucial that whoever decides to have information about the past and the present and the prospective about the expected results in the future. In decisions of an economic nature, it is therefore necessary to evaluate the alternatives considered and to choose the one that provides the best result.
Choices of a political nature are those involving decision-making, for example, about the election of President of the Republic, Governors, Mayors, State and Federal Deputies, and Aldermen. Rationality in political choices requires that the citizen has a culture or knowledge of economics, history, philosophy and political science and that he has all the necessary information about the proposals of the candidates for elective positions to make the best choice according to his objectives personal and / or of the collectivity. In decisions of a political nature, it is therefore necessary to evaluate the alternatives considered and to choose the one that provides the best result from a personal and / or collective point of view.
Choices of a personal nature are those that involve decision making, for example, about the profession to be exercised, about the organization where to work, about the city or country where to live, and especially with who to build a family and how to achieve happiness. It could also be considered for personal decisions about the profession to be exercised, about the organization where to work and about the city or country where to live the same criteria to be adopted in the decisions of a political and economic nature described above. Rationality in personal choices about the profession requires that people has all the necessary information about the best professions of the future from the point of view of the labor market with its respective remunerations and that the alternatives considered are evaluated and that will be chosen one which provides the best result from a personal point of view. Rationality in personal choices about the organization where to work requires that who take the decision have all the necessary information about the best organizations in the country or abroad where he or she can work and that choose the one that delivers the best result from a personal point of view. Rationality in personal choices about the best cities or countries to live in requires that people have all the necessary information about the best alternatives that, after evaluation, is chosen one that offers the best result from a personal point of view.
However, the rationality in choosing whom to build a family on the basis of the criteria described above is a difficult challenge for a passionate couple acting generally on impulse. The rational criterion for the couple to decide whether or not to marry is for both to have an experience of living together for the time necessary to have mutual knowledge. From the reciprocal knowledge of the couple, one can identify if there is convergence in their conceptions of the world, if there is convergence between their goals in life and if both are satisfied sexually. These are the determining factors of success in the continuity of a couple’s relationship. Success in setting up a family with the choice of the ideal partner is an important step in achieving individual happiness that would be more complete with the success that is achieved in the decisions of the couple in the political field with the successful choices of rulers and representatives in parliaments and with the successful choices in the economic field that provide them with financial stability.
For our Greek ancestors and philosophers, the pursuit of happiness should be the central motor of our life. Happiness itself results from our choices, and to make better decisions many of us choose to follow guidelines, be they scientific, philosophical, or religious. Individual happiness is achieved through self-education. Education is the means through which people would be empowered to make the best choices in life. Education must be supplemented by Positive Psychology on the basis of which it is possible to do something more than solve or alleviate psychological disturbances, that is, it intends to make us happy. Positive Psychology works harder with the weaknesses of the human being, more the pursuit of happiness than the study of mental illness. Positive Psychology is the medium through which people would conquer individual or collective happiness (community, region, country), which is ultimately the main goal that guides the choice of people in life. In short, while Education would act to empower people to make the best choices in life, Positive Psychology would show the ways to achieve happiness.
The dominant thought is that the main role of Education is to prepare people well for the job market. Another thought is that education has as its primary purpose to develop a critical sense. The purpose of education should therefore be to enable the individual to acquire skills, to develop a critical sense, to take advantage of the scientific and cultural heritage historically constructed by mankind, but, above all, to be an instrument to promote happiness. One of the purposes of Education, perhaps the most important one, is to offer people opportunities and means to be happier. The world is waiting for a revolution in education that has as its main objective to provide the conditions for the achievement of the happiness of human beings.
To be happy, the individual must seek self-knowledge, including with the help of the psychologist. Happiness is an achievement that is achieved through self-education. And she will never be found out. To be happy, the individual must therefore rely on Education and Positive Psychology. Explaining what kind of projects actually make people happy, and what kinds of attitudes lead to happiness, or make it impossible, is the object of Positive Psychology which, as a descriptive and non-normative discipline, it merely records what actually makes people happy. Positive Psychology explores the importance of knowing how to properly interpret the world and ourselves. Some of the unhappiness of individuals results from wrong ways of interpreting things. What happens is that in certain situations we become unhappy because we enter into a self-destructive spiral of subtly wrong thoughts about ourselves and the other thoughts that depress us more and more. To be able to detect and neutralize these thoughts, recognizing that they are simply exaggerations and misinterpretations of things, is a fundamental step for happiness, according to Positive Psychology (LOPES, Paulo. Psicologia Positiva. Matrix Editora, 2017).
The purpose of life is not to satisfy one’s desires in order to be happy, but just what each of us has to give to the world. Happiness must be shared. Like many other species, humans are gregarious and having bonds of trust and friendship with other people is an important part of happiness. Regrettably, we live in an age of private and subjective life, for the exacerbated individualism erected as an absolute value. Without broader concerns, which go beyond the immediate borders of self, family and close friends, one can hardly be genuinely happy. Happiness, after all, does not really come from the inside – it also comes from donation to the world.
Individual happiness will not be realized without the collective happiness of the nation that can only result from the political will of its leaders and its population. In antiquity, philosophers regarded happiness as a matter related to politics. It was the United States Constitution, which dates from 1787, which included the pursuit of happiness among human rights, based on philosophical reflections that originate in the thought of David Hume and Enlightenment ideas. Bertrand Russell has made it clear that “happiness should always be considered as a good pursued by everybody” (RUSSELL, Bertrand. A Conquista da Felicidade. Rio: Editora Nova Fronteira, 2015). This means that individual happiness is not achieved without the realization of collective happiness.
In all times, the achievement of happiness has been an objective pursued by all human beings. Some human beings seek selfishly to conquer their individual happiness and others to individual happiness alongside collective happiness in all ages. Our vision is that individual happiness would be achieved when the person could achieve their desire, such as having a healthy life, forming a supportive family, having resources that guarantee their social and family ascension, being surrounded by true friends, to be loved by husband or wife, to be recognized for the good he or she accomplishes in the world of work and society as a citizen and to live in a well-structured progressive and democratic society. Collective happiness could be achieved when human beings who are part of a local, regional and global community were able to fulfill their desires living in a well-structured and progressive democratic society that would provide them with the conditions for the development of all fellow citizens. It is necessary to build a world that will end the sadness in life and build happiness for all human beings.
An excellent example of countries that have traced the path of collective happiness of their nations is the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland). The UN World Happiness Report 2013 shows that the world’s happiest nations are concentrated in Northern Europe, with Denmark at the top of the list. The Nordics have the highest ranking in real GDP per capita, the highest healthy life expectancy, the greater freedom to make choices in life and the greatest generosity. Scandinavia is the cradle of the most egalitarian model the world has ever known. The so-called Scandinavian model is an important reference in the formulation of heterodox (progressive) economic policies across the globe. The success of this model was due to the combination of a broad welfare state with rigid mechanisms of regulation of market forces, capable of putting the economy in a dynamic trajectory, at the same time that it reached the best indicators of well-being between the countries of the world.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 78, holder of the CONFEA / CREA System Medal of Merit, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of 14 books addressing issues such as Globalization and Development, Brazilian Economy, Global Warming and Climate Change, The Factors that Condition Economic and Social Development, Energy in the world and The Great Scientific, Economic, and Social Revolutions that Changed the World.
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