What exactly are we all striving for if not happiness? Malta normally comes near or at the top in international studies on happiness as reported by people living in each country, but in the article Baby Blues? (September 3) we are told that another international ranking is a problem to be fixed. Malta has the "lowest female participation rate in the EU, with just under 70 per cent of women of working age economically dependent on their male partner or the state". 

Nadia Farrugia and Edward Scicluna take the declining birth rate as being a problem because with fewer, younger workers to pay the health and pension bills of an elderly population Malta might face fiscal difficulties. It is suggested Malta must get more women to work than choose to do so today because this is what other countries have done. But what about problems that seem to come along with high female participation rates? Higher divorce rates, lower child school achievement, higher stress, lower happiness.

Once a critical mass of both husbands and wives work, it becomes almost compulsory for the rest of housewives to work as well to compete for the same homes and trappings as afforded by the couples next door. In the UK most of the extra family income has gone straight out again in mortgage repayments as everyone just bid the prices of the same houses higher. The rest goes on child care and cleaning. This flatters GDP figures because the productivity of housewives does not get counted, but if they go out to work this appears in GDP and then as they employ child care, cleaners, and spend more on prepared meals because they have no time, all of that appears as "growth".

There are many other solutions to the strains put on balancing national accounts by an ageing population, such as compulsory private pensions, or extending the retirement age as we get healthier and live longer. I think we should strive for happiness, and traditional nuclear stable families where a mother can choose to look after her children is something to be proud of.