Rawls to the Rescue: Explaining Germany’s Curious Lack of Subjective Well-Being

Despite being a developed and industrialized country with one of Europe‟s most booming economies, Germany ranks only 33rd in Gallup‟s World Poll on happiness, well below the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other first-world countries.1 This is particularly perplexing when one considers Germany‟s highly progressive taxation system and its residents‟ extraordinary access to public goods. This defies what one would expect when examining Germany‟s institutional and economic structure from the viewpoint of the mainstream positive psychology movement. Indeed, to better understand Germany‟s relative unhappiness as a developed liberal democratic society, it proves beneficial to consider its infrastructure and institutions from a Rawlsian perspective.