Welfare got associated with government "hand-outs" - assumed to not be a good thing.
Let's take New Zealand's version of welfare. New Zealand's "wellbeing budget" - outlined how new budget funds will go to the most serious causes - mental health, child poverty and family violence. That was in 2019. It is quite remarkable that New Zealand had changed how it spends on new things/projects. There are 61 indicators tracking everything from loneliness to trust in government institutions.
So what about a government concerned about happiness? There are a few - Bhutan is the most notable. The articles about Bhutan describe the paradox of happiness. "This paradox asserts that, when individuals or groups actively pursue happiness as the singular ultimate goal, the inescapable result is, ironically, increased unhappiness. While this paradox may at first seem puzzling, evidence of its validity is easy to see, particularly in western culture." The article goes on to say that western economic models conflate happiness with materialism and wealth. Studies repeatedly show there isn't greater happiness with greater wealth.
There was opposition to the NZ approach in 2019 according to the NY Times review of the 2019 change. The Western world consensus is that it is the key government responsibility to look out for overall economic success. The historical things like protecting from invading armies, maintaining social order, protecting from natural disasters and similar crises, facilitating transportation across the geographic expanse and other key public services - seem lesser, don't they?
So back to happiness. We'll have to wait till after COVID-19 to see NZ results. Ih the meantime, are there happiness jokes that aren't sarcastic? I found these jokes (related and unrelated) very satisfying:
My boss told me to have a good day. So I went home.
My teacher gave us an assignment and one of the questions was "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I answered “Happy”. The teacher said I didn’t understand the test, I said to her that she didn’t understand life.Two dogs are walking along a street. They are passed by a third dog driving a lorry load of logs.
One turns to the other and says: “He started fetching a stick and built up the business from there.” Two nuns were driving through a Transylvanian forest when the road was blocked by a fearsome looking vampire.
“What do we do now?” the passenger asked.
“Get out and show him your Cross,” said the nun in the driver's seat.
So the nun on the passenger side stepped out onto the road, wagged her finger and exclaimed: “Get out of our way, you stupid vampire.”
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