Robert Samuelson: Why aren't we happier?
... Scholars such as Cornell University economist Robert Frank are asking why [Americans today aren't any happier than they were in the 1970s despite the fact that the US is far wealthier]. In "Falling Behind," he argues that rising affluence condemns us to self-defeating consumption contests. People want ever-bigger homes, because their friends have ever-bigger homes. But the extra pleasure of owning these grander homes is muted, because (yes) all our friends have them too. Meanwhile, the added debt to buy the house may make us more anxious; and we may regret sacrificing some leisure to buy the bigger home. Moving farther out into suburbia for a bigger home increases traffic congestion and commutes. We engage in "behaviors that are smart for one, dumb for all," Mr. Frank writes.
Superficially, Mr. Frank seems convincing. But he ignores history. Americans have always been acquisitive and rank conscious. In "Democracy in America" (1840), Alexis de Tocqueville observed: "Besides the good things which he possesses, [the American] every instant fancies a thousand others....This thought fills him with anxiety, fear and regret." The psychology of prosperity feeds on ambition and insecurity. The U.S. system often seems an insane rat race. But it has created huge gains in material well-being. True, there's an economic disconnect today, but I'd cite two underlying causes.
First, economic insecurity has increased. Median job tenure for men aged 45 to 54 dropped from about 13 years in 1983 to eight years in 2006, reports economist Rob Valletta of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Americans have more cause to worry -- and they do.
Second, Americans compare the present with the immediate past. The economic boom of the late 1990s conditioned people to expect a blissful future which hasn't arrived....
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Superficially, Mr. Frank seems convincing. But he ignores history. Americans have always been acquisitive and rank conscious. In "Democracy in America" (1840), Alexis de Tocqueville observed: "Besides the good things which he possesses, [the American] every instant fancies a thousand others....This thought fills him with anxiety, fear and regret." The psychology of prosperity feeds on ambition and insecurity. The U.S. system often seems an insane rat race. But it has created huge gains in material well-being. True, there's an economic disconnect today, but I'd cite two underlying causes.
First, economic insecurity has increased. Median job tenure for men aged 45 to 54 dropped from about 13 years in 1983 to eight years in 2006, reports economist Rob Valletta of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Americans have more cause to worry -- and they do.
Second, Americans compare the present with the immediate past. The economic boom of the late 1990s conditioned people to expect a blissful future which hasn't arrived....