[only_as_i_fall]

That's a silly strawman. Nobody is claiming that happiness exists literally.

And it's intangible nature does nothing to prevent us from measuring or maximizing aggregate happiness.

[savingsPossible]

Well, not any more than chairs :P

I'd say happiness exists exactly as much as chairs, in both cases we are classifying what is, in reality, just a collection of atoms, either as a chair or as a happy person, based on some external measurments