Economic Over-Obsession
It seems that whenever we are in or around a time of recession that the answer to all of life's ills can be found in improving the economy, upping the GNP, whatever. Especially as I continue in my studies in international development, I find that it is nearly impossible to link our happiness and value through economic means. As I have been working with economists lately, it seems they know the price of everything and the value of nothing...I don't have anything great to offer as far as topic, but I found the following quote thought-provoking and something worth sharing
Quote:
?The gross national product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors, and jails for the people who break them. The gross national product includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm and missiles with nuclear warheads....
?And if the gross national product includes all this, there is much that it does not comprehend. It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of streets alike. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials....
?The gross national product measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile; and it can tell us everything about America -- except whether we are proud to be Americans.?
-Robert Kennedy
?The gross national product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors, and jails for the people who break them. The gross national product includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm and missiles with nuclear warheads....
?And if the gross national product includes all this, there is much that it does not comprehend. It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of streets alike. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials....
?The gross national product measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile; and it can tell us everything about America -- except whether we are proud to be Americans.?
-Robert Kennedy
Comments
Originally posted by Scott
There was a study recently that showed that people in developing countries don't need money to deriver happiness in life. Social Justice warriors want us to believe that all the evils in this world are caused by some having so much and many others having so little. In the end people don't need "economic justice" in this world to live a full life.
Good point. Let's not exclude ourselves from the idea of money=happiness. I believe equity is important, and that we should make efforts to assure that those in the third world don't have to spend 75% of their income on (clean?) water, but I don't believe that "economic development" in the third world will solve the evils of the world. In fact, the process seems to create more.
Do you have a citation for that study? I'd love to check it out.
Fellows
Originally posted by Fellowship
I had a lengthy conversation with someone about this the other evening. I mentioned that we see in pop-culture tv shows many large homes with $15,000 Sub-Zero refregerators, $8,000 Viking stoves. And homes with $200,000 of home furnishings and decore within the home not to mention the multi-million dollar homes to begin with. Then you see people driving cars topping $70,000-$100,000 Hummers included. Is this the benchmark for "making it" in life I ask? Does ownership of these expensive things including Rolex watches really make a person more happy and add to them peace? In my life I have seen people who had it all live some of the most miserable lives. And we wonder why so many kids are on anti-depression medication.
I can't remember who said it, but I vaguely remember a joke that went something like "Money might not buy you happiness, but at least it will make you more comfortable in your misery."
I often wonder if even that's true when you consider the misery some people put themselves through to get more money. If you're working 60-80 weeks, and spending another 20 hours per week stuck in bad traffic, you hardly have much time or energy left to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
I also wonder how much spending people do not for things they actually want, but for things they've convinced themselves that they are "supposed to" want, or for things that they think they need merely to project a certain image.
I recently read about a study (sorry that I can't remember a reference or link) that showed happiness rising with income, but only over a narrow range from $30K-$50K per year. (I believe this is income in US dollars and covers only Americans.) After $50K per year, the extra income didn't seem to have much of an effect.
Here's a paper that supports the notion that money can buy happiness. This looks like a student paper -- it doesn't appear to be a major peer-reviewed study -- but the info provided is interesting nevertheless. The connection shown here between money and happiness is strong in the sense of statistical certainly, but weak in the sense of degree of effect. Paraphrasing, you could say that there's a definite tendency for more money to make people happier, but perhaps not greatly happier, and with no guarantees.
My personal guess would be that when money lifts you above a day-to-day struggles to meet basic needs it has more of an effect on happiness than when more money simply means more luxuries. And of course, no amount of money is going to help much if you don't have friendship or love.
Beyond basic needs, I'd guess that how much happiness you get out of your money depends on how wisely you spend it, how wisely you give it away, if you have to time to enjoy your money, or if instead have to spend a lot of time keeping the flow of money coming in, keeping your stash protected, if you're worrying about who your real friends and loves are vs. the people just after you for your money, etc.
When trying to compare from country to country how much money has to do with happiness, I imagine the biggest factor in making a fair comparison would be figuring out what different peoples consider "basic needs". What's "basic" to an American will likely be a luxury to an Ethiopian. While a large part what's considered basic is probably no more than a matter of one's own cultural expectations, there are also real situational differences in what's basic. For example, for most Americans it simply isn't a realistic option to, say, build a mud hut and become a subsistance farmer, even though this is "good enough" for a huge number of people on this planet. You'd likely have your mud hut condemned for health and safety violations, and have your children taken away from you for not providing them a "suitable home environment."