@Gazebo : just to make sure before making a point... happy + unhappy = total pop, correct?
If yes, then the new method is counter-intuitive, and may even be too soft. Let's take your "very" value, 0.40...
H/U = 0.40 .... (1)
H + U = T ...... (2)
(1) into (2): 0.4 U + U = T = 1.4 U
Therefore, U = T/1.4 ~ 0.71 T --> means "very unhappy".
So, what you call "very unhappy" is 71% of the total population is unhappy... all government buildings are long gone in flames at that level man, even in Latin America.
Point is: the empire wide happiness function should be a function of happy/total, both to make it intuitive (100% becomes the "utopia" level, everyone is happy) but also more in line with realistic results. Me thinks.