Happiness and Keeping Ahead of the Joneses

Imagine that the Internal Revenue Service in your country claimed that you owe $1000 plus in tax arrears.

You dispute this, and you challenge the tax people in court, but the court rules that they're right. Especially if you're a person of substantial means, you'd pay up with a shrug of the shoulders. "Too bad," you'll comfort yourself, "you can't win all the time!" and you'll put the matter out of your mind fairly quickly.

Now let's assume that instead of the government, an acquaintance, or even a good friend, alleges that you're in his debt, for whatever reason, for the same sum of money.

Again, you go to court.

Your alleged creditor pleads his case, you plead yours. Eventually, the judge decides in his favor, and even explains to you very patiently why the money rightfully belongs to your opponent.

How do you react to your loss now?

Probably, even if you're very wealthy, you're not about to shrug it off so quickly this time!

Why not? Because somebody else is gaining at your expense! If there's anything worse than a property loss, it's an Ego loss. Now, for most of us, that's really a heavy burden to bear!

What brings this kind of scenario to mind is some recent research into an interesting social paradox. Over the past 50 or 60 years, developed countries have been growing progressively richer, but their people, on the whole, don't seem to have become much happier.

Yes, more rich people, proportionately speaking, claim to be happier at any given time than do poorer people. This should lead you to the conclusion that as incomes rise and a country as a whole grows richer, both the relatively rich and the relatively poor would become happier.

But this isn't the case, apparently. It may still be axiomatic that an individual who becomes richer becomes happier, or at least claims to be. But when society as a whole gets wealthier, nobody seems more pleased with their lot. Why?

In a series of lectures at the London School of Economics this year, Richard Layard, an economics professor at the School, reviewed the evidence from several disciplines in an attempt to solve this paradox.

The real problem, he suggests, is that people are in the habit of comparing their lot with others. If I have a million but you have two million, I have to be feeling miserable. My million is almost worthless to me.

Latest News


guardian.co.uk
Twitter hacker says admin password was 'happiness'
Los Angeles Times, CA - 6 hours ago
Happiness. The hack victim, a Twitter staffer who goes by the name Crystal on the social network, used that nine-letter word as the password for her account ...
Twitter Hacker Says Admin Password Was 'Happiness' Wired News
Simple, brute-force dictionary attack was used on Twitter Neoseeker
Password guessing attack exposed in Twitter pwn Register
WebProNews - The Tech Herald
all 22 news articles

Ten Ways To Be Happier Now
Forbes, NY - 7 hours ago
It might seem that happiness is in short supply these days. Still-slumping housing prices, bleak consumer spending, high unemployment and a recession are ...

RTE.ie
Twitter 'happiness' hack exposed Britney
Metro, UK - 18 hours ago
... but then discovered she was a staff member called Crystal with access to all profiles and passwords. Her simple password, Happiness, was easy to crack.
Twitter insecurity Seattle Post Intelligencer
all 393 news articles

Get High on Happiness:
Jewishinstlouis.org, MO - 1 hour ago
By Max Weiman According to the Book of Creation, (an ancient kabbalistic book written by the patriarch, Abraham) every month has a Hebrew letter associated ...

24dash
Ofsted rates children's happiness
The Press Association - 13 hours ago
The data gives each local authority a score on five different measures - the emotional health of children (happiness), bullying, participation in "positive" ...
Inner London teenagers least likely to take drugs guardian.co.uk
Half of all pupils are bully victims The Sun
More friends and emotional security - how northern children top ... guardian.co.uk
all 6 news articles

It's Never Too Late: Happiness Now!
Examiner.com - 20 hours ago
OK So sometime in December I was minding my own business and I get this email that I missed because I was very busy minding my own business but actually the ...

Bihar government jobs bringing happiness but with pain
Indian Muslims, CA - 16 hours ago
By Abdul Wahid Azad, During the last few years some positive changes took place in the Indian province of Bihar which was earlier dubbed as BIMARU state of ...

It's Nothing but Happiness For Kate and Len
PopSugar.com, CA - Jan 6, 2009
Kate Beckinsale and Len Wiseman traveled with Lily from London to LA over the weekend and then hit the streets for some grocery shopping yesterday. ...

Happiness in hockey
Morgan Hill Times, CA - Jan 5, 2009
At the Sharks Ice in San Jose, a hodgepodge group of men sporting full hockey pads, carrying sticks and wearing face masks emerges from the rink-side locker ...

Happiness is ...
Enid News & Eagle, OK - Jan 6, 2009
Ask each one their definition of happiness and you would likely get 6.7 billion different answers. Some people say being rich would make them happy, ...

Resources