Peter Gordon looks at a happiness survey that purportedly shows that the United States is only 15th in the world.

Those of us afflicted with revealed preference thinking might reflect on the fact that, in just the last few years, 3.5% of Puerto Rico’s population decamped from #1 to #15 (refers to net outmigration).

Puerto Rico was number one in the survey. Mexico was number two. Taking Peter Gordon’s approach, and watching what people do rather than how they answer surveys, is what I call in my book acting as “The Omniscient Voyeur.”

For Discussion. What would be the biases of using net migration as an index of happiness, rather than survey results?