February 13, 2006--Happiness Experts

For the first time, last year, 2005, Americans, as a people, spent more than they saved. There are all sorts of explanations for this—perhaps we were just emulating our government which continued to rack up record deficits; maybe because the value of our houses rose so much and interest rates continued to be low we took cash-out mortgages and used some of that cash to shop. Then could it be that we simply decided that money can in fact buy happiness and with that in such short supply from other sources, we collectively decided, “What the hell, let’s shop!”

Sorry to be the one to disappoint you, especially as I myself continue to be spending it while in Europe, but one of the consequences of being here is that I get the International Herald Tribune every morning and there are occasionally stories available there that do not appear in the NY Times. In this context, then, I cannot help but share an article from the IHT (linked below) titled, “Materialism Is Bad for You, Studies Say,” which just about says it all.

In the past, religious thinkers and philosophers have claimed that materialism is bad for one’s soul; now researchers are purportedly finding that it’s even worse than that—materialism is bad for our psyche. Forget soul! We live in a post-soul society.

To be fair, most of this research is socio-economically based. For people living hand to mouth earning more money is probably good for both their souls and psyches.

But let’s anyway listen to the experts. Ed Diener, a University of Illinois psychology professor and, yes, happiness expert, says that “Those who value material success more than they value happiness are likely to experience almost as many negative moods as positive ones.” Nothing all that astonishing here but it does sort of sound right.

Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard psychology professor who focuses on people’s flawed ability to predict how they will feel about things, says that though “we think money will bring us lots of happiness for a long time, actually it brings a little happiness for a short time.” Flawed predicting here. But he does acknowledge that even if we get this message out to people, that money ultimately buys unhappiness, they will still go on coveting “a Porsche and a new home and tickets to the Super Bowl.”

I just thought of one more reason for all this doomed spending, both governmental and personal—could it be that it’s the ultimate distraction? In the old days they used to give us Bread and Circuses. Today we for sure want more than bread and the animal rights people have pretty much done away with the really distracting circuses—throwing Christians to the lions.

So now we’re not only bowling alone but also are on our own to figure out how to get through another lousy day.