> People can't be simply reduced down to a number and happiness isn't an 'x' that we can solve for in a mathematical calculation. You can do it - although you

> People can't be simply reduced down to a number and happiness isn't an 'x' that we can solve for in a mathematical calculation. You can do it - although you can't calculate happiness completely, you can make models and reason about it in a mathematical/economic way. How much you believe the theory maps onto the real world is a valid criticism, however there are entire sections of the social sciences that attempt to do this to help inform policy and decisions (see: Happiness Economics - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness_economics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness_economics). In fact, the concept of a quality-adjusted life year (QALY) is a very common healthcare economics concept which is used in the UK (NICE) to decide how to allocate drug funding and direct policy.