Thursday, 28 August 2008
Are We Happier? Yes We Are!
Add or View Comments- Thu, 28 Aug 2008
- View More On: Global Paradigm Shifts
Contrary to a previous post here, it seems a recent report shows happiness increasing in countries with rising GDP. Have a look at Happiness Trends in 24 Countries, 1946-2006
So now we're happier?
The reliability of these data, given the sample size and number of countries is not strong. Perhaps the trends can be explained generationally. Older generations may have rued the loss of social structures after the War and seen the increased wealth as insufficient compensation for this loss. Perhaps younger generations growing up in the 1970s and 1980s are better adjusted to modern social structures and are more content with their lifestyles, enabling them to enjoy the benefits of greater wealth?
Or not?
The joy of data on happiness is that it is superbly ambiguous and questionable! I can only hold on to the intuitive truism that money can't guarantee happiness. Similarly, the lack of money doesn't guarantee unhappiness. Clearly, money plays a part but never tells the whole story.
Fahd Says:
15 Oct 2008
money today is considered to be the cause of happiness...at least thats what the majority of people in the developing world feel...that with more money they can purchase greater comfort...i guess that can explain the data...and why developing countries have steeper slopes.rnrnonly those who have reached their material comfort levels or in Maslow words 'self-actualized' realize that there is more to this planet than money.