Searching for Happiness
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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. -
Understanding happiness
Another view on happiness came in an article published in the Italian
Catholic magazine, La Civiltà Cattolica. Writing in the May 20 issue, Jesuit
Father Gianpaolo Salivini noted that many Italians, in spite of living in a
rich country, are not satisfied with their lives.
Aristotle, Father Salvini observed, considered that it was not possible to
be happy without also being virtuous. More modern writers, such as Nobel
prize economist Amartya Sen, consider that happiness consists not only in
material possessions, but in a series of goods and ends that give a sense of
fulfillment to life.
Father Salvini also drew attention to the importance of personal
relationships in the attainment of happiness. This includes friendships,
family and social relations.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that the New Testament
beatitudes respond to our natural desire for happiness. "This desire is of
divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to
the One who alone can fulfill it." ( No. 1718 )
Another clue to explaining our desire for happiness is the Christian
virtue of hope. God has placed an aspiration to happiness in every person's
heart and hope responds to this, explains number 1818 of the Catechism. The
purification of our aspirations by means of the virtue of hope not only
helps us avoid discouragement, but also preserves us from selfishness and
leads us to a happiness that flows from charity.
In terms of material goods and happiness, the Catechism reminds the
faithful of the words of Jesus who exhorted the disciples to renounce
everything for his sake and that of the Gospel (Lk 14:33).
In a series of numbers (2544-47), the Catechism develops the theme of
poverty of the heart, reminding Christians of how Jesus motivated his
followers to renounce worldly riches and to place our trust in God.
True happiness does not come from riches, fame or power, explains No. 1723
of the Catechism. These things are beneficial, but lasting happiness only
comes from God, the source of every good and all love.
A lesson not always easy to remember. -
Aye, a hard lesson to teach, looking at the world today.
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Indeed!Originally posted by SingaporeMacross:Aye, a hard lesson to teach, looking at the world today.
The unhappiness over cost-of-living issues over at the Speaker's Corner forum got me thinking.
When people talk about such issues, the favourite character that is brought out to bolster their arguments is 'the poor'. Yet many of those who complain are not of the poor, but rather of the 'middle class'. The 'middle class squeeze' as a socio-economic problem is well-documented.
With Singapore become a nation of shopping malls, I often wonder how/why the people who complain about the high cost of living continue to support all those redundant malls and retail outlets with their consumption purchases.
Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that our cost of living cannot be better managed. But first, we ought to ask ourselves why we complain when we go on recklessly consuming. E.g. changing mobile phones frequently, buying over-priced goods, eating out at restaurants frequently etc.
Incidentally, the sermon at the Novena service last Saturday also had the priest gravely admonishing us (as a country) for our blatant materialism.
As Chesterton once said, to be contented is to be free. I think we need to work harder on that, so that together with St. Paul, we can say that we are happy both in want and plenty.
And before anyone slimes me for being indifferent to the plight of 'the poor', I'll say that growing up in a 1-room HDB rental flat, I have 'been there, done that'. So I speak from experience.
regards,
obiterdicta -
Attended evening Mass at IHM today...
During Homily, Fr Bryan de Souza was lamenting on Singaporeans complaining that it is so expensive to raise children, therefore causing many of them to give up on children. But he added that many families are still able to get by, even though they have 3, 4 kids. They may not be wealthy, but at least they are loving. -
Happiness is all in our mind, determined by our own definition of happiness. Day in day out, I see so many children with multiple disabilities, but they don't look less happy than me.