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The hippies were right all along about happiness
>By Andrew Oswald
>Published: January 18 2006 21:28 | Last updated:
January 18 2006 21:28
>>
Politicians mistakenly believe that economic growth
makes a nation happier. "Britain is today experiencing
the longest period of sustained economic growth since
the year 1701 - and we are determined to maintain it,"
began Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer,
in his 2005 Budget speech. Western politicians think
this way because they were taught to do so. But today
there is much statistical and laboratory evidence in
favour of a heresy: once a country has filled its
larders there is no point in that nation becoming
richer.
The hippies, the Greens, the road protesters, the
downshifters, the slow-food movement - all are having
their quiet revenge. Routinely derided, the ideas of
these down-to-earth philosophers are being confirmed
by new statistical work by psychologists and
economists.
First, surveys show that the indus trialised nations
have not become happier over time. Random samples of
UK citizens today report the same degree of
psychological well-being and satisfaction with their
lives as did their (poorer) parents and grandparents.
In the US, happiness has fallen over time. White
American females are markedly less happy than were
their mothers. Second, using more formal measures of
mental health, rates of depression in countries such
as the UK have increased. Third, measured levels of
stress at work have gone up. Fourth, suicide
statistics paint a picture that is often consistent
with such patterns. In the US, even though real income
levels have risen six fold, the per-capita suicide
rate is the same as in the year 1900. In the UK, more
encouragingly, the suicide rate has fallen in the last
century, although among young men it is far greater
than decades ago. Fifth, global warming means that
growth has long-term consequences few could have
imagined in their undergraduate tutorials.
None of these points is immune from counter-argument.
But most commentators who argue against such evidence
appear to do so out of intellectual habit or an
unshakeable faith in conventional thinking.
Some of the world's most innovative academics have
come up with strong evidence about why growth does not
work. One reason is that humans are creatures of
comparison. Research last year showed that happiness
levels depend inversely on the earnings levels of a
person's neighbours. Prosperity next door makes you
dissatisfied. It is relative income that matters: when
everyone in a society gets wealthier, average
well-being stays the same.
A further reason is habituation. Experiences wear off.
A joint intellectual effort by psychologists and
economists has got to the bottom of the way human
beings adapt to good and bad events. Some researchers
believe that after a pay rise people get used to
greater income and eventually return to their original
happy or unhappy state. Such hedonic flexibility also
works downwards. Those who become disabled recover 80
per cent of their happiness by three years after an
accident. Yet economics textbooks still ignore
adaptation.
A final reason is that human beings are bad at
forecasting what will make them happy. In laboratory
settings, people systematically choose the wrong
things for themselves.
Yet surely, it might be argued, what about power
showers, televised football, titanium wristwatches,
car travel for all - are these not compelling evidence
for the long arm of growth? Yes they are, but we need
these because Mr and Mrs Jones have them, not because
they make an intrinsic difference.
Happiness, not economic growth, ought to be the next
and more sensible target for the next and more
sensible generation.
The writer is professor of economics at the University
of Warwick. This article is extracted from a lecture
to be delivered today as part of the One World Week
summit at the university
>
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