Poor Countries, Rich Countries, and Quantum Mechanics

Here is an interesting post by Dani Rodrik comparing the lifetime happiness between rich countries and poor countries (don't ask me how they measure aggregate lifetime happiness...). The graph shows a positive correlation between GDP per capita and a country's overall happiness. I found it interesting that Brazil and Mexico, both with GDP's per capita about 3 times lower than the US, and both with egregious income inequality, have a lifetime satisfaction rating equal to the US! How??? They should be miserable, right? Not all countries with similar inequalities have the high happiness ratings (look at China and India) and many countries with low income inequality are very happy (those jolly Scandinavians). What makes Brazil and Mexico so different (obviously, these questions assume that this study and graph represent reality, which is a huge assumption...and we all know the trouble you can get into with huge assumptions...). I've always been, and probably always will be, skeptical of "happiness" measurements. Happiness...marginal utility...it all seems to be a perversion and over-simplification of human relations and decision making, often leading to perverse and over-simplified theories, resulting in perverse and over-simplified policy prescriptions.

Just a passing though: has anybody seen/heard/read/made up any work on quantum mechanics and economics? I think it is a fascinating combination. Quantum mechanics, as sort of the anti-science of science, would, properly applied, be an interesting critique of the mechanistic fetish of modern economics. Another question: why does mainstream economics model itself after a (somewhat) obsolete physics theory? What sort of forces and frictions (that was just too easy...) are involved that slow the adoption of relativity and quantum mechanics (maybe even string theory) into economic theory?

Sean