Easterlin: Money won't buy happiness
Recent study by a Mortar Board member finds money only provides a fleeting satisfaction.
Nancy Chen
Source: http://www.dailytrojan.com/news/easterlin-money-won-t-buy-happiness-1.208455
In the heart of midterm season, many students lock themselves in their rooms, guzzle 16-ounce cans of energy drink and study until the wee hours of the morning. Forsaking their friends and health for a few weeks is worth it, they deem: They are in college to work hard and get ready to make money.
For our materialistic generation, happiness - more often than not - equals cash and the things it buys. But USC economics professor Richard Easterlin believes the old adage "Money doesn't buy you happiness" still rings true today.
Easterlin surveyed about 1,500 people spanning 30 years for his study, "Explaining Happiness," which followed the subjects and their levels of happiness as their incomes increased, stayed the same or decreased. The study found that, throughout the 30 years, there was no relationship between money and happiness.
Easterlin said he doesn't buy what most economists believe, that "if income increases substantially, then overall well-being will move in the same direction."
Most people aspire to live the "good life" - a home, car, television set, swimming pool, vacation home and the ability to travel abroad - Easterlin said in his study. But when they have it, they want more; their aspirations grow along with their list of possessions. In fact, Easterlin said that, judging from the average number of things people want later in life, "new material aspirations" are at the same level as the previous wants they have already attained.
Easterlin pointed to this insatiability as evidence that material happiness is not real and buying that new plasma screen television won't make people content for long. He argued, instead, for more intangible factors as the key to happiness.
"Is that sense of satisfaction lasting? We get a new car, and we get used to it. We get new clothes, and we get used to it again. Trying to simply pursue material goods is largely self-defeating because we adjust very quickly to the pleasure we get from that. That's not true with family life," Easterlin said.
Family life, Easterlin said, is a key component to lasting happiness.
"People don't spend enough time with their family and caring about their health, and they put a disproportionate amount of time into trying to make more money," he said.
Freshman public policy, management and planning major Audrey Sunu, however, doesn't completely agree. The idea of money, she said, is relative.
"It doesn't matter if you have a lot or a little; what you need to fix is not the materialism, but your mindset towards it. It's in our innate nature to value objects and possessions, so materialism is inevitable. But what we can control is our attitude towards it. Your attitude towards it can either be healthy and unhealthy," she said.
A healthy relationship toward money, Easterlin said, is one that takes a backseat to relationships with people.
The happiness of married people is significantly greater than that of singles, according to the data Easterlin used for his study.
USC sociology professor and American family therapist Julie Albright said this form of happiness can be traced in evolution.
"If you think of it from a survival standpoint, if we didn't have a need to be with other people, we wouldn't have survived. It's a very basic need to be with others and form relationships and carry on our species at a very basic level," she said.
Even with people working nonstop in their offices or rooms, they still seek out human contact - just in different forms. Albright points to Internet chat rooms and the proliferation of Facebook as examples of people, even extremely busy ones, still desiring human contact.
"People want that connection somehow, some way," Albright said.
Albright said as a former mental hospital worker, she has seen firsthand what the lack of relationships will do to a person's well-being.
"People are more likely to be depressed if they don't have those friendships in their lives. They bring joy, stability and comfort in the bad times," she said.
People are "trained to think that money buys happiness," Albright said. And while a certain amount of income is necessary to survive "well," she said after attaining a comfortable life, money "doesn't add any more to the picture."
Recent study by a Mortar Board member finds money only provides a fleeting satisfaction.
Nancy Chen
Source: http://www.dailytrojan.com/news/easterlin-money-won-t-buy-happiness-1.208455
In the heart of midterm season, many students lock themselves in their rooms, guzzle 16-ounce cans of energy drink and study until the wee hours of the morning. Forsaking their friends and health for a few weeks is worth it, they deem: They are in college to work hard and get ready to make money.
For our materialistic generation, happiness - more often than not - equals cash and the things it buys. But USC economics professor Richard Easterlin believes the old adage "Money doesn't buy you happiness" still rings true today.
Easterlin surveyed about 1,500 people spanning 30 years for his study, "Explaining Happiness," which followed the subjects and their levels of happiness as their incomes increased, stayed the same or decreased. The study found that, throughout the 30 years, there was no relationship between money and happiness.
Easterlin said he doesn't buy what most economists believe, that "if income increases substantially, then overall well-being will move in the same direction."
Most people aspire to live the "good life" - a home, car, television set, swimming pool, vacation home and the ability to travel abroad - Easterlin said in his study. But when they have it, they want more; their aspirations grow along with their list of possessions. In fact, Easterlin said that, judging from the average number of things people want later in life, "new material aspirations" are at the same level as the previous wants they have already attained.
Easterlin pointed to this insatiability as evidence that material happiness is not real and buying that new plasma screen television won't make people content for long. He argued, instead, for more intangible factors as the key to happiness.
"Is that sense of satisfaction lasting? We get a new car, and we get used to it. We get new clothes, and we get used to it again. Trying to simply pursue material goods is largely self-defeating because we adjust very quickly to the pleasure we get from that. That's not true with family life," Easterlin said.
Family life, Easterlin said, is a key component to lasting happiness.
"People don't spend enough time with their family and caring about their health, and they put a disproportionate amount of time into trying to make more money," he said.
Freshman public policy, management and planning major Audrey Sunu, however, doesn't completely agree. The idea of money, she said, is relative.
"It doesn't matter if you have a lot or a little; what you need to fix is not the materialism, but your mindset towards it. It's in our innate nature to value objects and possessions, so materialism is inevitable. But what we can control is our attitude towards it. Your attitude towards it can either be healthy and unhealthy," she said.
A healthy relationship toward money, Easterlin said, is one that takes a backseat to relationships with people.
The happiness of married people is significantly greater than that of singles, according to the data Easterlin used for his study.
USC sociology professor and American family therapist Julie Albright said this form of happiness can be traced in evolution.
"If you think of it from a survival standpoint, if we didn't have a need to be with other people, we wouldn't have survived. It's a very basic need to be with others and form relationships and carry on our species at a very basic level," she said.
Even with people working nonstop in their offices or rooms, they still seek out human contact - just in different forms. Albright points to Internet chat rooms and the proliferation of Facebook as examples of people, even extremely busy ones, still desiring human contact.
"People want that connection somehow, some way," Albright said.
Albright said as a former mental hospital worker, she has seen firsthand what the lack of relationships will do to a person's well-being.
"People are more likely to be depressed if they don't have those friendships in their lives. They bring joy, stability and comfort in the bad times," she said.
People are "trained to think that money buys happiness," Albright said. And while a certain amount of income is necessary to survive "well," she said after attaining a comfortable life, money "doesn't add any more to the picture."
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