Pursuit Of Happ$ness

Just read an article in Time magazine about the pursuit of happiness.

I exulted in one point made. Money does buy happiness.

Whenever we are faced with the truth of our own poverty, we regurgitate the cliche that money cannot buy happiness.

This is true on a spiritual level. It is not true on a practical level. Money buys you room to breathe, it injects dignity into your life, it reduces the fear and anxiety wielded as weapons by The Mortgage Vampire and others of his ilk who maintain a stranglehold on your life.

In the 70's, Richard Easterlin opined that "there is a threshold beyond which increases in income produce no commensurate increase in subjective well-being. Once basic needs (food, clothing, shelter) are met, we simply reach a satiation point."

Researchers now admit that while happiness may not rise as quickly as income, there is no such thing as growing numb to money.

A study by the Brookings Instituion and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public policy, based on data from 155 countries, indicates that subjective well-being does indeed rise along with income and that a 10% bump in a $50,000 income produces a greater happiness boost than a 10% increase in a $10,000 income.

This may explain why we are all so dissatisfied with our 1/2 of 1% pay increases, if you get any increase at all, in direct contradiction to the kneeling gratitude our employers expect us to express

As Time puts it: "Rich isn't just better; it's much better."

Please retire the cliche.

More amusement. Pursuing happiness is most likely a basic human drive, but America is the only country that has written that phrase directly into our Declaration of Independence, identifying it as a central character trait of our citizens.

Irony: Since 1972, only about 1/3 of Americans describe themselves as very happy, according to surveys funded by the National Science Foundation. Just since 2004, the percentage of Americans who describe themselves as optimists has dropped from 79% to 50%, according to a new Time poll.

America took the pursuit of happiness and turned it into big business. Pills, self-help books, and motivational speakers. Self improvement is a $10 billion a year industry.

From Time: "According to the 2012 World Happiness Report, published by the Earth Institute of Columbia University, the U.S. ranks 23rd on a 50-country happiness index, far behind No. 1 Iceland, No. 2 New Zealand and No. 3 Denmark and trailing Singapore, Malaysia, Tanzania and Vietnam."

Only America could write the pursuit of happiness into the Declaration of Independence and then have the balls to commercialize it and turn it into a complete disaster.

Social media is referred to in the article as one aspect of discontent. Back in the old days you knew Carnegie and Ford and the rest of that crew were ultra rich, but you didn't see it. You didn't live next door to them, you were not invited to dinner.

facebook etc. makes everybody's exploits visible.

I know. I see friends of mine from high school taking lovely vacations, travelling to The Masters and generally living large and I regret deeply not sucking up to them more 40 years ago.

These are tough times. Getting more money is tougher than ever. Corporate America is severely dedicated to exacerbating that situation. Exploiting part time employees, minimizing the number of full time employees, taking away workers' rights. You better believe when business starts to turn around, employee raises will not follow suit.

I could take this opportunity to say that this country has created a  descending spiral of discontent that will result in its destruction.

But, as you know, I am a cheery optimist, so I'll let the facts and the stats speak for themselves.

Just promise not to hammer me over the head with the money doesn't buy happiness cliche, unless your goal is for me to purge on your shoes.