Happiness can be bought – just not by you
A recent study released by researchers from the London School of Economics (LSE) has shown that more money can, in fact, buy happiness – it’s just not in the way you might think. According to Professor Richard Layard, traditional methods of measuring progress and success should be overhauled, just as politicians should do more to ensure people are living happy lives. Let’s take a look at these arguments in greater detail.
In their study, Origins of Happiness, the researchers found that reducing or eliminating negative lifestyle influencers like domestic violence, depression, and anxiety would significantly increase the worldwide happiness index. Professor Layard writes that issues like these, as well as “alienated youth, exam mania and much else… should become centre stage.”
Layard suggests that the evidence showing that social relationships, and our mental and physical health are what matter most for our happiness “demands a new role for the state – not ‘wealth creation but wellbeing creation.”
The cost of reducing the effects of depression and anxiety in individuals is estimated at just over $16,000 per person per year, which sounds like a lot of money until you realise that the cost of addressing poverty is $295,000 per person per year, and unemployment is $49,000. The researchers found that eliminating depression and anxiety would reduce unhappiness by 20 per cent, while eliminating poverty would see a reduction of five per cent. Given those numbers, it’s easy to see how much more cost-effective it would be for governments to shift their focus away from poverty and unemployment onto mental health issues.
Other findings that emerged from the study included the apparent influence of different factors in happiness. Education was shown to have “a very small effect on life satisfaction,” especially when compared against the effects of having a partner. Interestingly, the overall increase in income or education has little effect on the happiness of a population. This is because individuals evaluate their own income and education “against the locally prevailing norm.” Past studies have shown that increase in income usually only correlates to an increase in happiness when the increase is greater in relation to those around an individual.
Thinking about your income and your own mental and physical wellbeing, which would you say contributes most to your own happiness?