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HAPPINESS

I think everybody should get rich and famous

and do everything they ever dreamed of 

so they can see that it’s not the answer.

Jim Carrey 

Everyone at every age wants to be happy.  Sadly, many people are going in the opposite direction.  Depression in the United States is ten times greater than it was in the 1960s.  The median age then for the onset of the first bout of depression was 29.5.  Today, it’s 14.5.  The statistics are similar in many developed countries.  China and India, the two fastest growing economies in the world, are also experiencing psychological repercussions  resulting from job demands, high stress, materialism and the overall Westernization of their cultures.   

            In 2006, researchers at Britain’s University of Leicester published  results from a study of happiness levels in 178 countries. The United Kingdom came in 41st, Australia 26th and the United States 23rd.  Smaller countries with more social cohesion and national identity tended to score better.  Aidrian White, analytic social psychologist, said population size plays a role in a nation’s level of happiness.  

            That proved true in the 2005 World Values Survey.  Venezuela, Nigeria and the Philippines ranked higher than Australia, the USA, and the United Kingdom in the number of people who consider themselves ‘very happy.’  Although poverty levels are elevated in these countries, they share a high value for and celebration of family and community.  

            In the United States, people are working harder and longer, have more possessions and prosperity than ever before but are no happier than people were in the 1950s.  In fact, divorce, abuse, crime, and suicide rates have escalated significantly.  The World Value Survey happiness researchers are among those who believe that consumerism is actually a deterrent to real happiness.  Therapist Sherry Cardinal says, “A number one stressor for Americans is consumer related pressure.  Striving after bigger, newer and better while going deeper and longer in debt keeps us fearful and awake nights.”           

            Psychologist Abraham Maslow developed a hierarchy of human needs in the 1940s.  It is generally demonstrated as a pyramid with five levels that define the human experience.  The first two levels are concerned strictly with survival.  Until those needs are met, people don’t have the time, energy or motivation to strive for anything beyond them.   

Level 1: Physiological/biological needs: Breathing, food, water, sleep.

Level 2: Security: Shelter, stability, safety.  

Level 3: Relationships:  The need to belong.  Relationships with family, friends, community.

Level 4: Esteem: Achievement, recognition, respect.

Level 5: Self actualization: Fulfilling potential, higher meaning and purpose, transcendent experience. 

            According to Maslow, the higher we move, the more we realize true happiness.  In consumer driven societies, many people are stuck on Level 2 seeking fulfillment in more possessions, better shelters, greater stability. They’re not finding it.  One study published in a magazine several years ago determined that a South African farmer earning $200 a year is about as happy as an American worker earning $70,000 a year.  After basic needs are met, money does not affect level of happiness.  In fact, the law of diminishing returns goes into effect: Additional acquisitions bring less and less happiness. 

            In a national Australian survey in 2002, Clive Hamilton of the Australia Institute found that a higher percentage of low income earners (under $25,000 a year) were happy and more satisfied with life than high income earners. “Instead of wondering whether the desire for more money is the problem,” he said, “they (people) raise their threshold of desire; this is an endless cycle.”  


      (From: MAKE THE BEST OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE)