It’s been a great 15 years in Australia for me and the family, so we will be leaving lots of friends and colleagues behind as we seek new adventures in London, where from next week onwards I will be part of a Wellbeing centre, pretty much the same topic as the Australian Research Council has been generously funding me to look at for the last 3 years.
The essential aim of the ‘Centre of Wellbeing’ at LSE will be to put utilitarianism into practice as much as possible. To this end, we hope to be part of wellbeing policy experiments, textbooks on how a decision maker can be a better wellbeing-bringer, longitudinal studies, large data-gathering exercises, policy briefs, Master’s courses, inter-active wellbeing systems, and all the rest of it. We have partners all over the world and an international panel for wellbeing is up and running at the end of next week. If you happen to have a few million lying around to help us get to our goals quicker, then please help!
Whilst the grass is greenest in Australia, variety is the spice of life so I am looking forward tremendously to the new adventure. Still, the family is not truly leaving Australia, as my 3 kids now carry Australian citizenship and one kid is still studying in Sydney. So it is ‘Tot ziens’ (‘See ya later!’) rather than farewell!
To all my friends and colleagues in the Australian economics community: do come and look me up in London; please join in with utilitarian-oriented research projects; and best of luck.
See ya later Paul – you’ve contributed a lot to this country for little reward, I’ll follow your LSE work with interest.
You certainly made a big impact in only 15 years. Definitely our loss. Keep us posted on your Centre.
Good luck and have fun!
Best of luck!
Your CT contributions have been valuable and enjoyable.
Hope it all goes to plan in London.
Good luck , God bless
Paul
Many thanks for your contributions of Club Troppo over the years. They have enriched the “conversation” greatly. Maybe you could occasionally post here from London to keep us Antipodeans in touch.
I can’t help observing that probably the surest step towards personal wellbeing will be to stay well clear of the sort of managerialist group-think drones who tend to infest places like UQ.
Goodbye and good luck, Paul!
What’s with this ‘perhaps you’ll post to Troppo’ schtick?
Paul will be posting to Troppo. Paul will be posting to Troppo at regular intervals or else I don’t take him to the secret Troppo imaginary car garage which is, as everyone knows, in London (otherwise why do our imaginary cars keep turning up at Heathrow to pick people up who’ve just flown to London (First Class).
But seriously, all imaginary cars aside, Paul has asked me to let everyone here know that Troppo is the best thing that has ever happened to him, and that he’d be personally very ashamed – very ashamed indeed – not to become a very prolific London correspondent.
Paul, all the best in The Ol’ Blighty. (During World War I, “Dear Old Blighty” was a common sentimental reference, suggesting a longing for home by soldiers in the trenches. The term was particularly used by World War I poets such as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon).
Your contribution to Club Troppo has been very significant, instructive, and learned. Keep posting !
Give our regards to Elizabeth.
Best of luck. Make sure you check into the Ecuadorian Embassy if you have any more trouble for telling the truth.
Best wishes Paul! Hope you enjoy London and I second Nick’s comment.