Winning the rat race by quitting it

LA Times ^ | Ezra Klein

[shrinkermd]

...We are a country obsessed with consumption, which would be fine if we seemed to be fulfilled getting bigger TVs but having less time to watch them. But, in the aggregate, that's not the case. "The things that we get used to most easily and then take for granted are our material possessions -- our car, our house," writes Layard. "But there is lots of evidence that people underestimate the process of habituation." The amount of happiness we think we'll get from a new house, and the amount of happiness we actually get from a new house, are not the same.

So why the ceaseless search for stuff? In a word, competition. It's worth it to stay ahead in the rat race. Researchers have asked people which they'd prefer: a world in which they made $50,000 but everyone else made half that; or one in which they made $100,000 and everyone else made twice that (prices are the same in both worlds). The majority preferred the first world. They would happily make less money, as long as everyone else made even less money.

Surveys have returned similar results for houses. Most individuals prefer a smaller house in a world where their neighbors have even smaller houses to a bigger house in a world where their neighbors have even bigger houses. Winning the competition is more important than having a yard, it turns out. Which is why economists call these "positional goods" -- goods whose worth is deeply tied into their position vis-a-vis your direct "competitors" (which is to say neighbors, friends, etc.).

On the other hand, not all goods are positional. Some make us happy simply because they make us happy...

[shrinkermd]

A hard to excerpt article; nonetheless, quite interesting since it is based on empirical data.

[goldstategop]

There's no need to keep up with the Joneses. Material possessions is no guide to judging how happy a person is with life.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[padre35]

This is what happens when people try to use the external to satisfy the internal needs.

I also think the questions were poorly framed. How about:

Would you take less pay to have a happier home, or would you take more money and a few more problems at home?

[EternalVigilance]

If America doesn’t turn around soon and put the intangibles - faith in God, and respect for the unalienable rights to life and liberty - ahead of the material, she will soon lose both.

[econjack]

Material possessions is no guide to judging how happy a person is with life.

I know that's probably true, but I've tried poor...I wouldn't mind trying rich and then deciding. If I didn't like it, it wouldn't be too difficult to become poor again. It's going the other way that proves a little difficult.

[2banana]

Researchers have asked people which they'd prefer: a world in which they made $50,000 but everyone else made half that; or one in which they made $100,000 and everyone else made twice that (prices are the same in both worlds).

A world in which you made $50,000, but taxes were only 10% or a world in which you made $100,000, but the government (city, state and fed) takes 60% of it...

[Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit]

Yes, but the capitalist consumption economy is predicated on making people UNHAPPY. If you are content, you dont need stuff. If you dont need stuff, sales decline and the economy suffers. Advertisements are focused on making you feel bad about how you look, feel, live, etc.

There is an outstanding book I was given by a Jesuit Priest called “Living Christ in a Consumer Society” that really changed the way I viewed consumption and how capitalist/consumer culture functions. It essentially calls consumerism idol worship and makes a strong case.

Makes you wonder if the message to “go shopping” was the right one coming from our supposedly very pious POTUS after 9/11 doesnt it?

[Erik Latranyi]

Materialism is another by-product of the 1960s generation.....the most self-centered, demanding, spoiled rotten group of people to ever exist in a capitalist society.

It is this generation that brought us “white guilt”, yuppies (driving BMWs), the millenium bug hoax, the stock market bubble of 2000, the subprime mortgage mess, Roe v Wade, etc -—— I’m sure I left much out.

Once this generation enters retirement, they will be the most ungrateful, demanding bunch of seniors the world has ever seen.

The only good thing is that this planet will be rid of them in another 30 years or so.

PS: If you are considered a baby-boomer and are offended by the above, too bad. It was your generation that brought us lawsuits over being “offended”.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Material possessions is no guide to judging how happy a person is with life.

All my life I have been pretty much content with what I have at the moment (in terms of “stuff”). As one example, I drive a ten-plus-year-old car with 150,000 miles on it, not because I have to but because I don’t *need* a new one.

To be fair, I have always been able to work and earn enough to support myself and my wife (no kids). There have been times in my life when I have had to be careful, but I have never done without the basics.

No brag, just fact; I am thankful I’m wired that way, and I consider it a blessing from God.

[Ken522]

I’m with you, Professor - I’ve done the poor bit, and it’s not a happy state. The rich bit still eludes me, but things are a lot better than they used to be ... it’s nice to have a house even though after a few years the house seems somewhat small.

[Jaysun]

I can’t adopt this way of thinking. I still believe that the winner is the one that dies with the most chips.

[sinanju]

Finishes with:

“But there’s an easy solution. Stop. Pull out of the competition. Seriously ask whether you want to continue trading away your time for your stuff. And that requires ignoring what your neighbors have. It requires shutting your eyes against short-term incentives and trying to remember what actually makes you happy, what you tend to remember when each year closes out. It requires keeping a little of that Thanksgiving litany in mind, even after the meal is forgotten and marshmallows and yams again seem an absurd combination.

Ezra Klein is a staff writer at the American Prospect. He blogs at EzraKlein.com.”

Interesting overall—this Ezra Klein being who he is—there has to be some shades of the usual amerikka-hating sentiment in there (he has to put in the part about the wonderful French, for instance), and of course insinuate that we are all greedy, materialistic capitalists. The “shoot my neighbor’s cow” attitudes that this survey supposedly revealed are disturbing if true and the ritualistic contempt for the “keeping up with the Jonses’” attitude is sounding hoary after fifty years. Despite the title, he does not go so far as to endorse the briefly fashionable “living simply” fad that swept over the well-to-do recently.

The gist of the article is to remember what’s really important. Big houses and fancy “stuff” aren’t going to mean a lot on one’s deathbed.

[Jaysun]

The problem is the feminist movement.

[sinanju]

Not to forget that recent (UN-commissioned?) study that tried to show that the dirt-poor countries led that mysterious scale of national happiness.

Yeah, right.

[chiller]

Money solves a few problems, but it doesn’t take much to accomplish that. Internal happiness is pretty cheap. You’ve probably got it or you don’t and lots of money sure as hell won’t buy it. Look at lottery winners....

[RatRipper]

Beat my brains out simply because I am jealous of what others have or might get . . . a very sad state of affairs that does not plague me.

[CDHart]

I think the Bible says pretty much the same thing -- don't build up treasures on earth, which can be lost or destroyed. Instead build up treasures in Heaven, where they will endure for eternity.

Carolyn

[Chode]

and the rats keep winning the rat race... but i'm not gonna let it bother me tonight.

[giobruno]

Together, my wife and I make less that 60k and we live in Los Angeles where the cost of living is high. Frankly, we have more than all we need. We are frugal, buy most of our things used (there are a lot of great furniture bargains in LA on Craigslist), and are always on the lookout for a bargain. We live very well, going to the theater, concerts, festivals, the opera, and art museums on a weekly basis. We cook at home, saving thousands, yet still eat ribeye, drink excellent wine, and have leftovers to take to work. I drive an older car (paid, reliable, and in good shape for the year) and live in a modest apartment complex (clean and very well-kept). We travel regularly, driving all over the Southwest, Northern California, and Mexico. I do not need more money, it would be nice, but it is really not necessary to have a good life.

We have many, many friends who make a lot more than we do, are up to their eyeballs in bills, cannot seem to stop buying things they really don’t need, and work so hard they hardly have time to do anything. They have large and expensive houses they hardly live in, and more gadgets than they have time to figure out. I have long suspected that a great deal of their need to keep buying and buying is coming from their other friends who have the same crazy outlook. I hope they are happy in their new Land Rovers, working all weekend, because we are headed up to Paso Robles to drink some of America’s best Zinfandel.

[telebob]

So what is new here? Materialism is not a recent phenomena. It’s part of the human condition. Some are affected more than others. So it has been always.

To say that materialism started in the ‘60’s or with such-and-such a generation is silly. It has always been with us, just like people who denounce it and claim that it is the rot at the heart of our civilisation.

In my opinion, the thing to avoid is not materialism but greed and envy.