Searching for Happiness
Money Can't Buy it All
NEW YORK, JULY 8, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Recent research on the age-old
search
for happiness is confirming the opinion that material wealth alone
does not
bring lasting satisfaction.
A recent article in the Science journal asserted that it's illusory
to
think high income brings automatic happiness.
On July 3, the Washington Post reported on the Science study in
which
researchers concluded that people with above-average income are
barely
happier than others, and they tend to be more tense.
"People grossly exaggerate the impact that higher incomes would
have on
their subjective well-being," said Alan Krueger, a professor of
economics
and public affairs at Princeton University, and one of the authors
of the
study.
According to the Post, an abundance of data over the last years
shows that
once personal wealth exceeds about $12,000 a year, more money
produces
virtually no increase in life satisfaction.
Just a few days previously, researchers published a study showing
Iceland
to be the country with the happiest people, followed by
Australia.
Information on the study, by economists Andrew Leigh, of the
Australian
National University, and Justin Wolfers, of Wharton University
in
Pennsylvania, was published in an Australian newspaper, the
Adelaide
Advertiser, on June 28.
Leigh said that while research shows that most developed nations
generally
enjoy a high level of happiness, surveys also showed that people in
some
relatively poor developing countries were happier than those of
the
developed world. Mexicans and Nigerians, for example, score well
on
happiness in spite of the lower incomes in these nations.
More information on the subject comes from Scotland, where
researchers
from Aberdeen University concluded that job satisfaction is the key
to
personal happiness.
However, in the June 30 report in the Scotsman, lead researcher
Ioannis
Theodossiou said that job satisfaction does not exclusively depend
on wages,
though this does have an important role. Other factors such as job
security
and control over working hours also play an important role in
determining
satisfaction, and therefore personal happiness.
The material temptation
An in-depth look at the relationship between material wealth and
happiness
came in a recently-published book entitled, "The Challenge of
Affluence"
(Oxford University Press). Written by Avner Offer, professor of
economic
history at Oxford University, the book examines the experience of
Britain
and the United States since 1950.
In this period, Offer observes, Americans and Britons have come to
enjoy
unprecedented material abundance. Since the 1970s, however,
self-reported
levels of happiness have languished or even declined, so the rise
in incomes
since then has done little or nothing to improve the sense of
well-being.
Along with this, there are numerous social and personal problems:
family
breakdown; addictions; crime; economic insecurity; and declining
trust.
Liberal societies hold out the promise that every person can choose
their
own way to self-fulfillment. The free society and the free market
give the
individual conditions for pursuing wealth and making choices. But
choice is
also fallible, not always consistent and, moreover, achieving more
remote
objectives requires a high level of commitment.
Therefore, exercising choice requires self-control and prudence,
qualities
increasingly uncommon in affluent societies. In fact, competitive
market
societies favor novelty and innovation, and this undermines
conventions,
habits and institutions.
Offer argues that a market system also tends to promote
short-term
rewards, individualism and hedonism. This undermines the commitment
needed
to achieve more satisfying longer-term rewards that are more
difficult to
obtain, but more fulfilling.
Offer believes that another factor undermining our happiness is
relative
income inequality. In both Britain and the United States inequality
has
worsened in recent years and this is a major factor in explaining
people's
lack of satisfaction with their situation. People who enjoy rising
incomes,
but see themselves falling behind others who are enjoying even
greater
progress, do not derive happiness from their improved
situation.
Love, marriage and the family is another area where failures have
damaged
our happiness. A combination of contraception, no-fault divorce,
more
cohabitation and higher levels of childbirth out of wedlock have
weakened
marriage. A rise in explicit sexuality and in sexual relationships
outside
of marriage has also weakened the capacity for love and commitment
within
the marriage bond.
Marriage, Offer notes, confers important benefits: physical and
mental
health; longer life; happiness; along with numerous benefits for
children.
The proportion of married people has declined, meaning that about
one adult
in seven does not enjoy the protection and benefits of marriage. So
while
proponents of changes in marriage and the family argue its benefits
of more
freedom and space for "self-fulfillment," the costs for many have
been high.
Offer does, however, stipulate that economic growth is not
something bad.
It should not, however, be the number one priority and we need to
treat the
claims of supposed benefits resulting from growth with
skepticism.
In societies that are already wealthy, further efforts to raise
economic
growth need to be evaluated along with the costs this will impose.
A
rediscovery of the virtues of moderation and self-restraint could
well
benefit society. This led Offer to conclude that well-being depends
on how
well we understand ourselves and not just having more.
