Exposing one of the major fallacies of the Western materialist mindset: money brings happiness. Thus, we must spend our waking moments working to earn to consume. The consumerism of our culture is pervasive and omnipresent; from womb to grave, a constant barrage. In other countries around the world, there has been an emphasis placed other facets of life, other means of measurement for economic progress. One such nation is tiny Bhutan, a former kingdom in the Himalayas, which uses the concept of gross national happiness, rather than gross domestic product, to measure its advancement. Gross national happiness consists of the four following pillars:
1) Good governance
2)Balanced economic development
3) Environmental Preservation
4) Preserving and promoting culture
This is seen as progress on the "Middle Path"-not eschewing advancement, but putting advancement in its proper context, and not allowing for the unbridled cultivation of materialism as a means to its own end. These four pillars are used to preserve the environment of Bhutan, to retain its rich culture and societal bonds, and to provide the people with education and healthcare, regardless of the remoteness of their village; though many lives are hard in this primarily subsistence agriculture-based economy, the people are notably happier than in many societies of the "developed world." The people are also raised with a deep understanding that happiness is not reliant on external stimuli-it needs to be derived from a carefully cultivated mind; and a carefully cultivated mind is not derived from consumer goods or the impulsive satisfaction of desire. I had a chance to witness this phenomenon in the film,
"Bhutan: Taking the Middle Path to Happiness."
And as Nicholas Kristof points out in today's Times:
Income doesn’t have much to do with happiness. Americans haven’t become any happier as they have prospered in the last half-century. And winning the lottery doesn’t make people happier in the long term.
This is called the Easterlin Paradox: Once they have met their basic needs, people don’t become happier as they become richer. In recent years, new research has undermined the Easterlin Paradox, yet it’s still true that happiness has less to do with money than with friendships and finding meaning in a cause larger than oneself.
“There’s pretty good evidence that money doesn’t matter much for how you feel moment to moment,” said Alan Krueger, a Princeton University economist who is conducting extensive research on happiness. “What seems to matter much more is having good friends and family, and time to spend on social activities.”
