Happily, we’re happy
Why we posted this: Lots of influential books have argued that capitalism makes us unhappy. Luckily, the tide is turning. People are at last looking at the real evidence.
The original story:
If you’re richer, you’re happier
People tell you that wealth does not lead to happiness. New research shows they’re wrong
by Daniel Finkelstein
The Times
14 May, 2008
Summary of the story:
The argument that money makes people unhappy is often repeated, sounds authoritative and is popular. The cites writers such as the economist Richard (Lord) Layard and the psychologist Oliver James as amongst the best known proponents of the idea. But, says the author, it’s based on bad data. The author cites material from American economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers which convincingly points the other way.
livingissues comment:
This is a great story. The idea that there is an emotional and spiritual deficit in modern life – that consumerism and affluence harm people – is obviously very attractive to the hippy, the puritan and the vaguely-dissident soft-left liberal green sort of mind.
Daniel Finkelstein is valuable as he draws our attention to work which suggests that the richer people are the happier they tend to be. It’s worth noting, however, that he is wrong to suggest that the old argument was based on evidence which has been superseded. Actually, the Happiness Debate was mostly promoted by people who were very selective in the data they used and very selective (wrong, to be blunt) in the way they read much of it.
Here are some leads:
The Economist was useful on the subject of happiness research in July 2007.
The editor of livingissues has also had a go at examining the data.
