The book FALLING BEHIND attempts to resolve one of the defining paradoxes of our age: Why doesn\u2019t increased prosperity and rising standards of living translate into more happiness?<\/p>\n
Ultimately, FALLING BEHIND misses the mark, like other similar efforts, because it doesn\u2019t understand where happiness comes from in the first place.<\/p>\n
What columnist Robert Samuelson calls the \u201ceconomic disconnect\u201d is evident in polling data: thirty years ago, 36 percent of Americans said that they were \u201cvery happy\u201d and another 53 percent called themselves \u201cpretty happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2006, only 32 percent called themselves \u201cvery happy\u201d and 55 percent said they were \u201cpretty happy.\u201d Our sense of happiness has barely budged despite increased prosperity and even greater improvements in our standard of living. What\u2019s more, as Samuelson points out, people aren\u2019t any happier during boom times than they are during recessions.<\/p>\n
The disconnect between money and happiness is even more pronounced from a global perspective. A few years ago, NEW SCIENTIST magazine asked the residents of 65 countries how happy they were. The survey found that Nigerians, followed by Mexicans, Venezuelans, and Salvadorians, were the happiest people in the world. Obviously, prosperity didn\u2019t play much, if any, role in the happiness of these countries.<\/p>\n
The author of FALLING BEHIND, Cornell economist Robert Frank, argues that while increased prosperity can\u2019t make you happy, it can, ironically, contribute to unhappiness. Rising standards of living also raise our expectations. Since we can never fully meet our expectations, we are always going to be less than happy, and our attempts to \u201ckeep up with the Joneses\u201d leave us feeling unsatisfied.<\/p>\n
While Frank\u2019s argument makes sense, it doesn\u2019t tell us anything about what makes people happy in the first place. Thus, it can\u2019t tell us why increased prosperity doesn\u2019t translate into increased happiness.<\/p>\n
To understand that, you need to talk to someone other than an economist, such as your spouse or a friend at church. Literally. The National Opinion Research Center found that married couples are two-and-one-half times more likely to call themselves \u201cvery happy\u201d than divorced people. A similar difference exists between married people who attend church weekly and single people who don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Results in other countries are similar to those in the United States: A survey of Australians found that \u201cChristians are happier than atheists and more generous . .\u201d The results led the researcher to conclude that the \u201cdecline of the significance of church life in Australia\u201d has led to a loss in the \u201cfabric of community well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n
The role that faith and family play in our happiness suggests a possible answer to the paradox I mentioned: The same period that saw rising standards of living also saw a weakening of family life and increased secularization.<\/p>\n
While we were getting richer materially, we were becoming poorer in the things that most contribute to our happiness. That\u2019s why we don\u2019t feel any better about ours lives.<\/p>\n
Twenty-five hundred years ago Isaiah asked the question: \u201cWhy spend your labor on what does not satisfy?\u201d The question still applies. That\u2019s because we, like the people he first asked, have forgotten where happiness comes from.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2007 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint with Chuck Colson” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #7563]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The book FALLING BEHIND attempts to resolve one of the defining paradoxes of our age: Why doesn\u2019t increased prosperity and rising standards of living translate into more happiness? Ultimately, FALLING BEHIND misses the mark, like other similar efforts, because it doesn\u2019t understand where happiness comes from in the first place. What columnist Robert Samuelson calls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3244,1222,1122,1112,85,3243,3242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}