If you are going to use the happiness of the country as justification for something you need to do a bunch of fancy statistics to try and disagregate the specif

If you are going to use the happiness of the country as justification for something you need to do a bunch of fancy statistics to try and disagregate the specific thing you are justifying from the large basket of differences between the countries you are comparing, as there are often large differences that are unrelated to what you are talking about driving happiness differentials. It is also extremely disingenuous to call innovation and companies "new ways to part people from their money." People are often parting with their money because that new thing meaningfully improves their lives. Also, the basic scientific research argument is extremely overplayed. Breakthroughs in basic scientific research amount to nothing if they don't make it into the supply chain for goods and services eventually and that happens through company formation.