'When people find jobs when economic growth picks up, they typically get happier. But when they switch on the TV and watch commercials? Not so much'
It’s the question that has baffled economists for generations. Why doesn’t economic growth make us happier?
Some say it’s all hooey and we really are getting happier — though you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who seriously argues that the U.S., which is 30% richer per capita than it was in the late 1990s, is now 30% happier, or even 3%.It’s making us miserable, according to a new paper published by the Center for Economic Policy Research. The richer we get as a society, the more advertising we see. And the more advertising we see, the unhappier we get, it concludes.
“Rises and falls in advertising are followed, a small number of years later, by falls and rises in national life-satisfaction,” they found. Naturally, there are caveats. It’s only one study. Some of the numbers involved are small — gains or falls in national life satisfaction of a few percent, for example. And so far it’s only been conducted in Europe, not in the U.S. — although a spread of 27 European countries allows for a wide variation in cultures.
According to Fast Company: “What the company thinks those best lives look like, however, is apparently straight out of a Manhattan-set romantic comedy sponsored by Goop.” One such tweet that rubbed some women the wrong way: “If you know a girl who has been negative online—about herself or others—try this fun activity to spread positivity.” Why this might leave anyone in the dumps is baffling.
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