happiness
I’ve just finished reading an article in a July issue of The Economist (there’s nothing new about the news I get my hands on here). The article is titled “Where money seems to talk: the rich are different from you and me – and they say they are happier”. The article discusses two recent polls, by Gallup and Ipsos, which have shown that “in all the rich places (America, Europe, Japan and Saudi Arabia) most people say they are happy. In all the poor places (mainly in Africa), people say they are not.”
The Gallup poll asked the question, “How satisfied are you with your life, on a scale of naught to ten?” The responses, claims the article, shed “unexpected light” on the traditional wisdom that money doesn’t buy happiness. Meaning, according to the survey, that income level does, in fact, insure greater happiness.
The polls’ findings and subsequent interpretation are not immediately sold on me. But on the one hand, as I examine the map that shows who is “happiest” in the world, I am not surprised. Among the least satisfied are Niger, Burkina Faso, Haiti – some of the poorest countries in the world (Niger is THE poorest). If food insecurity, dire lack of infrastructure, poor health, and unreliable education did nothing to a country’s morale; if living on the brink of survival had no effect on your attitude towards life; then all this hubapaloo over ending poverty is just meaningless cacophony. If a mother who can feed her child is just as content as one who can’t, then do we really know anything? Also, if there were absolutely no connection between wealth and happiness, then all of us over here working towards a world without extreme poverty, should pack up, go home, and become investment bankers.
So, as the poll shows, extreme poverty is debilitating in many ways. Those of us who aren’t poor can’t shrug and say, “Well yes, they’re poor, but look how happy there!” Responsibility can’t be shirked, heads can’t be turned.
The poll is also revealing in other aspects. Some of the most violent, law-less, war-torn countries are among the least content. Afghanistan, Uganda, Sri Lanka, and Colombia: all countries in which death at the hands of violence is a daily threat. Note that Sudan and DR Congo were not even polled. Zimbabwe, in all its political oppression, also scored low. And Eastern European countries, like Georgia and Armenia, who sit so close to the glitter of and prosperity of both Western Europe and prosperous Gulf countries, reported low levels of happiness. In places such as these, perhaps the link is less between money and happiness, but security and happiness. Peace and satisfaction.
Yet I still refrain from quickly embracing an assumed relationship between money and happiness, especially when the question posed to test it is “how satisfied are you with your life, on a scale of zero to ten?” While Benin wasn’t polled (its too hard to make it out on this tiny map anyways), its neighbors to the north and east were. All were reported to have populations generally not happy with their lives.
I can’t help but wonder who exactly was asked. I can’t imagine pollsters making their way out to villages in the bush of Africa, translating the question into obscure languages. Were Fulani nomads asked? Were illiterate families? Or was it city dwellers, people who speak English or French, business people and bureaucrats? If this were the case, then of course most responded by saying that they are not too satisfied with their lives. If I posed this question to my neighbors in Tobre, a group of mostly subsistence farmers, I’m 99% sure they would answer with confused stares. People like this are not used to questioning their happiness. The constant self-analysis and introspection that is so normal to us Americans is completely foreign to them. This type of question is as relevant as polling to find out whether or not they prefer PCs to Macs.
However, if I were to ask my fellow teachers, or even well-to-do Beninese, I know they would quickly respond by saying no, they are not too content. I know this because it has been those who are not at great risk (shockingly, a $60 a month salary puts one out of danger here) who have been the most verbal about their suffering to me. People whose children have inoculations and full tummies, who own motos and televisions, are the most outspoken in regards to their poverty. I have no studies to show why this is, but I feel like once people have a taste of prosperity, they hunger for more. I don’t judge this tendency, but I think its an interesting one.
Perhaps national ethos is another factor. Those teachers, business-owners, and other financially secure Beninese, are also those in closest contact with aid agencies and the wider world. And it is the wider world which relays them the message: you are poor. Africa has been told this for decades. People here are pitied, often for good reason, but its not surprising that the pity has been internalized.
Brazil, Venezuela, and Mexico, all middle-income countries, had levels of happiness just as high as the U.S. and Western Europe. Having spent time in both Venezuela and Mexico, I think I can assert that both countries exude a certain pride in themselves. In no other place have I seen such proud national identity and joie de vivre. There are plenty of poor people (yet no starving), plenty of urban violence, and political scariness, but the national attitude of these places is “we are happy.”
This all leaves much to contemplate, and I doubt I’ll come to any definitive conclusions. It’s too easy to forget the number of factors (historical, economic, political, and cultural) that play a part in not only the stability and satisfaction of a country, but also of the individuals of which a country is made.
The Gallup poll asked the question, “How satisfied are you with your life, on a scale of naught to ten?” The responses, claims the article, shed “unexpected light” on the traditional wisdom that money doesn’t buy happiness. Meaning, according to the survey, that income level does, in fact, insure greater happiness.
The polls’ findings and subsequent interpretation are not immediately sold on me. But on the one hand, as I examine the map that shows who is “happiest” in the world, I am not surprised. Among the least satisfied are Niger, Burkina Faso, Haiti – some of the poorest countries in the world (Niger is THE poorest). If food insecurity, dire lack of infrastructure, poor health, and unreliable education did nothing to a country’s morale; if living on the brink of survival had no effect on your attitude towards life; then all this hubapaloo over ending poverty is just meaningless cacophony. If a mother who can feed her child is just as content as one who can’t, then do we really know anything? Also, if there were absolutely no connection between wealth and happiness, then all of us over here working towards a world without extreme poverty, should pack up, go home, and become investment bankers.
So, as the poll shows, extreme poverty is debilitating in many ways. Those of us who aren’t poor can’t shrug and say, “Well yes, they’re poor, but look how happy there!” Responsibility can’t be shirked, heads can’t be turned.
The poll is also revealing in other aspects. Some of the most violent, law-less, war-torn countries are among the least content. Afghanistan, Uganda, Sri Lanka, and Colombia: all countries in which death at the hands of violence is a daily threat. Note that Sudan and DR Congo were not even polled. Zimbabwe, in all its political oppression, also scored low. And Eastern European countries, like Georgia and Armenia, who sit so close to the glitter of and prosperity of both Western Europe and prosperous Gulf countries, reported low levels of happiness. In places such as these, perhaps the link is less between money and happiness, but security and happiness. Peace and satisfaction.
Yet I still refrain from quickly embracing an assumed relationship between money and happiness, especially when the question posed to test it is “how satisfied are you with your life, on a scale of zero to ten?” While Benin wasn’t polled (its too hard to make it out on this tiny map anyways), its neighbors to the north and east were. All were reported to have populations generally not happy with their lives.
I can’t help but wonder who exactly was asked. I can’t imagine pollsters making their way out to villages in the bush of Africa, translating the question into obscure languages. Were Fulani nomads asked? Were illiterate families? Or was it city dwellers, people who speak English or French, business people and bureaucrats? If this were the case, then of course most responded by saying that they are not too satisfied with their lives. If I posed this question to my neighbors in Tobre, a group of mostly subsistence farmers, I’m 99% sure they would answer with confused stares. People like this are not used to questioning their happiness. The constant self-analysis and introspection that is so normal to us Americans is completely foreign to them. This type of question is as relevant as polling to find out whether or not they prefer PCs to Macs.
However, if I were to ask my fellow teachers, or even well-to-do Beninese, I know they would quickly respond by saying no, they are not too content. I know this because it has been those who are not at great risk (shockingly, a $60 a month salary puts one out of danger here) who have been the most verbal about their suffering to me. People whose children have inoculations and full tummies, who own motos and televisions, are the most outspoken in regards to their poverty. I have no studies to show why this is, but I feel like once people have a taste of prosperity, they hunger for more. I don’t judge this tendency, but I think its an interesting one.
Perhaps national ethos is another factor. Those teachers, business-owners, and other financially secure Beninese, are also those in closest contact with aid agencies and the wider world. And it is the wider world which relays them the message: you are poor. Africa has been told this for decades. People here are pitied, often for good reason, but its not surprising that the pity has been internalized.
Brazil, Venezuela, and Mexico, all middle-income countries, had levels of happiness just as high as the U.S. and Western Europe. Having spent time in both Venezuela and Mexico, I think I can assert that both countries exude a certain pride in themselves. In no other place have I seen such proud national identity and joie de vivre. There are plenty of poor people (yet no starving), plenty of urban violence, and political scariness, but the national attitude of these places is “we are happy.”
This all leaves much to contemplate, and I doubt I’ll come to any definitive conclusions. It’s too easy to forget the number of factors (historical, economic, political, and cultural) that play a part in not only the stability and satisfaction of a country, but also of the individuals of which a country is made.
posted by betsie at 7:35 AM
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