Gary Snyder once said "more and more of us in the industrialized world are feeling a spiritual void, and coming to believe that moving away from consumerism and towards community may be an important step in recovering that nameless thing we've lost."

But if money can’t make you happy, perhaps a new kind of economy can? That’s what a documentary, “The Economics Of Happiness” asks.  The film discusses the connection between a bad economy, the environment, and that spiritual void. How people in the United States have become less happy since the 1950’s; that consumerism has broken down community and the connection to nature.

Once case study is Ladakh, also known as “Little Tibet,” in northern India. By all accounts, it has changed from a place that once had zero unemployment, leisure time, natural resources but the introduction of subsidized food, fuel, and roads that have underminded the local economy and brought an income gap.

Check the trailer after the jump.

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