Does Economic Wealth Affect HappinessHappiness is rated by many people as their lifelong pursuit and the driving force behind their striving for success. However, which criterion is effective in the measurement of happiness has long been a most debated topic, still open to discussion till today. In the 1970s when all western countries were experiencing the golden age of rapid economic boom, Michael R. Hagerty and Ruut Veenhoven (2003 , quoted in Easterlin, 1974) posed a question: “Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?” To answer this question, we have to delve into the relationship between economic wealth and happiness. Data provided by Michael R. Hagerty and Ruut Veenhoven (2003 , guoted in Veenhoven 1989; 1991; Diener and Oishi 1999; Inglehart and Klingemann 2000) reveals that for over 40 nations, national happiness is in direct proportion to GDP/capita. Nevertheless, Samuel Brittan (2001) hold the belief that happiness comes from some other variables, such as interpersonal relationship, life quality and even politics. This essay is going to discuss whether economic wealth means happiness or not and then I will put forward my opinion.
“Being financially well-off enables one to have more access to the enjoyment of life” (Mankiew,G & Taylor, P,M, 2011). Though GDP cannot measure the health of children, the quality of education, it succeeds in offering us better health care, more educational opportunities. In addition, international data concerning the quality of life also suggests that countries with low GDP per person tend to enjoy less modern amenities, such as televisions, telephones and paved roads. Whats worse, these countries are reported to have higher rates of infant mortality, maternal mortality and child malnutrition. Thus, it is clear that economic wealth is strongly correlated with the quality of life, which will in turn affect how people feel in their lives. As is analyzed by Anyaa(2011), happiness means to how much extent our needs are met and how favorable we perceive our life conditions to be. Better life quality surely satisfies our physiological needs of food and shelter and therefore plays an important role in ensuring our happiness, especially for those who live under the poverty line.
It is not sagacious to give much weigh to economic wealth in the measurement of happiness. “In a national Australian survey in 2002, Hamilton found that high income earners actually feel less satisfied and prosperous than low income earners” (According to survey statistics happiness of wealthy people is no greater, n.d). Similar striking result was found by Samuel Brittan (2001) that Nigeria came out ahead of Austria in the list of the happiest country. “Dr. Michael Fordyce describes this phenomenon as the happiness law of diminishing returns which states that achievement in any area of life adds to happiness only up to a certain point” (According to survey statistics happiness
in a national Australian survey in 2002, Hamilton found that high income earners actually feel less satisfied and prosperous than low income earners. Similar striking results was found by Samuel Brittan (2001) that Nigeria came out ahead of Austria in the list of the happiest country. And he notes that, though the population of those countries shows a decline in happiness over the past 20 years, their wealth has remained stable. Thus, no surprise to anybody who’s not familiar with those figures, that’s just the way that it is in Australia.†However, there is some evidence that some wealth comes from the very rich itself. A study by a former professor of economics at the University of California at Santa Barbara found that, when looking at a measure of income inequality, people who own up to 20% of the wealth in a given country (and some other countries are similar) actually give more out to all those in a given income range than people who have only about 7%. The research also found that, on average, people who have 100% of the US wealth were more happy in life than were those who have little to nothing in that range. That study found that, more than four times as many people in a country who have 100% of the wealth in that country donate a second to charity every month than people who only have about 7% of the wealth. So, perhaps that’s why the happiness of wealthy people is such high, that people believe in this happiness law when they think about what the happiness of other rich people is like. But what happens if there is no happiness for everyone and everyone wants happiness for themselves? Does that mean the people who make the greatest contribution to the lives of people in the rest of the world are not happy in some measure? Or is there a balance? Or is it that some people prefer to give out their wealth than others? If the answer is “yes”, then there is a very real dilemma that arises. There is a small world out there. If everyone in one country is happy, then everyone in the rest of the world will live in a small world out there. So I think we have to ask ourselves, how do we go about dealing with a problem that seems so big to the public, as opposed to a problem like the one to which that nation was exposed? How should we deal with it ? Or how can we find the solution in terms of the people that are concerned about this problem and how do we make our society feel good at it and help everyone in it ? So, if we are honest regarding the problems that come with inequality, we must first be able to understand what is going on in the economy; and also, in our ability to understand how the economic world should operate, one might be able to make decisions on how best