Comments

1. 

   Brian J.

   July 18, 2020 at 13:31

   One needs to be one of the world's top thinkers to make a rational choice from the shortlist. I quit.
2. 

   S Rosenthal

   July 23, 2020 at 12:50

   If, as should be the case, the main criterion for being amongst the world’s top thinkers in the Covid-19 age is the relevance of the person’s works to addressing the threats to ourselves and the planet then the glaring omission from your list is Richard Layard. Richard Layard is a labour economist who worked for most of his life on how to reduce unemployment and inequality. He is also one of the first economists to work on how how better mental health could improve our social and economic life. He is currently the Director of the Wellbeing Programme in the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics In 2005 he wrote Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, which was published in 20 languages. He continues to find significant effects of relative income on happiness and to emphasise the importance of non-income variables on aggregate happiness. And in 2018, he co-authored a book published by Princeton University Press, called The Origins of Happiness: The science of wellbeing over the life course which was followed in 2020 by Can We Be Happier? Evidence and Ethics, published by Pelican Books. In particular he stresses the role of mental health in our affairs and argues that psychological treatments ought to be much more widely available. Among other good effects, they pay for themselves through increased employment and reduced costs of other healthcare. His work here, with the distinguished psychologist David M. Clark, has led within the English National Health Service to the creation of a major programme of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) which is now treating nearly half a million people a year, of whom a half recover during treatment. He has also played a significant part in the worldwide search search for new models of progress. Professor Layard chaired the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Health and Wellbeing, which produced a report at Davos in January 2012, “WellBeing and Global Success”. The OECD has for some years been attempting to redefine progress, and in July 2011 the UN General Assembly advocated greater priority for policies that promote happiness. Richard co-edits, with Jeff Sachs and John Helliwell, the UN World Happiness Reports. He was also a member of the Legatum Commission for Wellbeing Policy chaired by Gus O’Donnell. Its report on Wellbeing and Policy was published in March 2014 and Richard Layard’s concern with how to promote a happier society led him to co-found a new movement called Action for Happiness, which was launched in Spring 2011. Members from all backgrounds pledge to live so as to create as much happiness as they can and as little misery. The movement already has almost 200,000 members from over 170 countries. Based on the scientifically researched findings of positive psychology the movement aims to switch our priorities from amassing environmentally destructive material wealth to focusing on what really matters in life, fulfilling our basic psychological needs. As such it can also play its part in addressing the environmental threats to this planet. In 2000 he was made a member of the House of Lords. In 2014 Layard proposed, with six other colleagues, a Global Apollo Programme of internationally coordinated research to produce clean electricity cheaper than coal-based electricity within 10 years, which provided the model for Mission Innovation – the major international programme launched by Presidents Obama, Modi and Hollande at the UNFCCC in Paris in November 2015. Having made such a huge contribution to our all-round wellbeing over the years surely Richard Layard deserves a place in your list of top thinkers.