There is nothing inherently fair about equalizing incomes. If the government penalizes you for working harder than somebody else, that is unfair. If you save your money but retire with the same pension as a free-spending neighbor, that is also unfair.

Drawing his title from the Bhutanese measurement of national well-being Brooks argues that the United States is one of the world's only other countries to enshrine happiness in its credo. This portion drew a great deal from his work on happiness from Gross National Happiness and The Battle. For this last section Brooks cites many statistics regarding world poverty reduction from increased trade and globalization as well as statistics concerning limited government breeding charity.

Brooks (born May 21 1964) is an American social scientist and musician. He is the president of the American Enterprise Institute a nonpartisan think tank. Two of his popular volumes Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth about Compassionate Conservatism and Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America—and How We Can Get More of It explore these themes in greater depth.