© economist
An interesting article in the latest Economist magazine takes a look at economic growth at the expense of general well-being. Here's my own article I submitted to the Et Cetera:
THE ECONOMICS OF HAPPINESS
by James Sturgeon
01-03-07
If you've found your mood to be somewhat under the weather lately, you're not alone.
At this time of year people tend to feel the bite of the season. Whether it's post-holiday credit card bills, the affect of seasonal blues or simply the realization that it's time to get back to work, in some way, an emotional drop-off in January affects many.
As the second semester begins and the pressure of assignments builds, students are as susceptible as anyone to feel the strain.
But is this just a seasonal issue? A recent article in the Economist suggests not.
The timely article takes aim at why we of the modern developed society experience grave unhappiness despite a world of material affluence and seemingly boundless forms of leisure.
According to the article, since 2000 the developed world has experienced it's greatest economic boom ever , eclipsing the growth of both the roaring 1920s and post-war decades of the 1950s and 60s. To many folks, not just economists, that spells good times.
Alas, "A rising tide lifts all boats, but not all spirits."
The article states that human happiness hasn't trended upward alongside the brilliant economic conditions. Drawing on "copious survey data," it says, "From America to Japan, figures for well-being have barely budged."
In fact, despite our collective prosperity there are now more people in Canada, the UK and America receiving government or corporate aid for stress and depression than ever before - numbering in the millions.
In Canada, half a million Canadians reported experiencing depression severe enough to impact their jobs, according to the most recent figures from Statistics Canada – no less than four per cent of workers between 25 and 64.
The article offers two illuminating if unsurprising reasons for this.
The first is that an ultra-competitive society now increasingly demands bigger workloads of everyone, not merely the motivated. A capitalist system of cutthroat competition not just between corporations, but individuals, is pressurizing society, continuously chewing deeper into our free time and mental contentment.
According to StatsCan, night shift work, irregular hours, and occupational stress topped the list of job-related contributors to depression and discontent.
The second reason is that people are increasingly stuck on a "treadmill," working ever harder to pay for more things that yield little genuine happiness - or at least a brand of happiness that fades rapidly after a short period of time (think ring tones).
The article does not criticize the economic model of market capitalism as the generator of human discontent, however. To the contrary, capitalism, it offers, "leaves you free to be as unhappy as you choose."
It's a sobering thought for college students about to enter the workaday world. Competition and workloads for new jobs will certainly be demanding, yet ultimately, we are responsible for creating our own contentment.
The magazine is available on newsstands until Jan. 5.
-JS
-JS
"Few people at the beginning of the ninteenth century needed an adman to tell them what they wanted." - John Kenneth Galbraith
