The Economics of Happiness (2011)

48
Free to Stream
Unlimited streaming
Buy $10
Stream + download anytime

Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: fundamentalism and ethnic conflict; climate chaos and species extinction; financial instability and unemployment. There are personal costs too. For the majority of people on the planet life is becoming increasingly stressful. We have less time for friends and family and we face mounting pressures at work.

The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, government and big business continue to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, all around the world people are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance—and, far from the old institutions of power, they're starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to re-build more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm -- an economics of localization.

We hear from a chorus of voices from six continents including Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, David Korten, Michael Shuman, Juliet Schor, Zac Goldsmith and Samdhong Rinpoche - the Prime Minister of Tibet's government in exile. They tell us that climate change and peak oil give us little choice: we need to localize, to bring the economy home. The good news is that as we move in this direction we will begin not only to heal the earth but also to restore our own sense of well-being. The Economics of Happiness restores our faith in humanity and challenges us to believe that it is possible to build a better world.

You can support the filmmakers by making a donation to Local Futures, buying the film above, or by checking out their other films or books. We also recommend liking the film's Facebook page for news and related updates.

“What’s our favorite documentary of all time? The one film we wish everyone could see? Hands down, this is it. It is truly one of the most important and useful films for inspiring change that has been made in a generation.

- Films For Action

www.localfutures.org
Trending Videos
So, Russell Brand Is Right-Wing Now?
15 min - Kyle Kulinski covers the controversy over Russell Brand being labeled "right-wing" in a semi-viral tweet calling out Joe Rogan for having a right-wing guest bias on his show.  Brand's response is...
Schooling the World (2010)
66 min - If you wanted to change an ancient culture in a generation, how would you do it? You would change the way it educates its children. The U.S. Government knew this in the 19th century when it...
Born Sexy Yesterday: A Hollywood Movie Trope That Maybe Needs to Die
18 min - "This video essay is about a gendered trope that has bothered me for years but didn’t have a name, so I gave it one: Born Sexy Yesterday. It's a science fiction convention in which the mind of a...
When Social Control Masquerades as Social Justice (2023)
89 min - When ideas and movements that threaten to overturn established hierarchies of power are absorbed into elite institutions like Ivy League universities and for-profit corporations, they get...
Messages from the Future
Liberation Theory | Ricky Sherover-Marcuse
Films For Action
* Recommended *

Hi there.

I bet you've seen some great "films for action" that aren't in our library yet. 

Why not add that documentary or video directly to our library? Half of our best content was added by members. Submissions just need to be non-fiction, embeddable (like from Youtube or Vimeo), and related to activism or changing the world in some way. 

Here are some more tips on adding videos. We'd love you to become a regular contributor! 

Cheers,
The Films For Action team