More money doesn’t necessarily equate to more happiness.. So what does?
There comes a time in every society when unseen large forces come together and changes its very fabric. The 1990s were such a time for the Indian middle class where the socio economic forces of liberalization, rise of service economy and urbanization started changing the face of middle class families across India.
From the safety of the joint family systems and a rich community of friends and neighbors, the families today are now yearning for the warm interpersonal relationships, easy to reach neighbors and an accepting, inclusive community.
The answer of course is not going back to those days. In fact, there are many things that we should never ever go back on (empowerment of girls and women for one), but there are still many lessons to learn and things to reflect on in our lives today.
We humans are social animals and we all need a circle of safety that consists of family, friends, community and society to maintain our social well being. There is definitely an emotional investment in maintaining this circle but there is also an aspect of physical proximity and time investment. This circle of safety seems to be shrinking as an effect of the economic progress that the Indian society has made in the past 30 years. For e.g. the following probably depicts our typical circle of safety in the 80s and 90s:
We were born into it and experienced it everyday.
However, the circles of safety has shrunk for many of us. The American political scientist, Robert E Lane wrote (in his book “The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies”) about the cost of economic growth — social dislocation, less time for family and friends and disagreeable jobs.
I feel (and have experienced) that the Indian middle class has definitely paid some of these cost. With rise of service economy and urbanization, the younger generation of these families have moved to different cities (or in case of your truly — countries) to pursue their career, economic prosperity and a new life. Inevitably, this has resulted in shrinking their circle of safety that they took for granted by the virtue of physical proximity for one.
Having less time for family and friends also contributes to the fact that there is a limited time you can invest to maintain that circle of safety and that inevitably shrinks the circle furthermore. The following is an example of what the circle of safety might look like:
Robert Lane in the same book postulates that though the initial economic growth justifies the cost, there comes a point where more money does not mean more happiness.
Simply stated — After a certain point –“Money can’t buy happiness” and as we all know (thanks to the Beatles), it definitely cannot buy Love !!! For the visual folks, here is my chicken scratch chart on “Pursuit of Happiness” 😊
Sociologist Ray Dahl talks about “personal communities” and how our social well being is dependent on intimate relationship with these personal communities.
Our constant pursuit of material wealth may need not lead to more happiness or well being but the pursuit of building and expanding of these “personal communities” or “circle of safety” could.
Again, this is my perspective on how these facts could potentially explain the loneliness and a sense of longing that some of us feel despite the material progress we have made in our lives.
And this might not just be true about the India of 80s / 90s. It could very well apply to most market economies as Robert E. Lane has shown.
Its something we can all reflect on.
This post is adapted from the foreword that I wrote in the book Messages in a Bottle written by Vikram Gupta. The book is about growing up in the India of 80s and 90s and nuggets of experiences and wisdom to reflect on for our future generations.
The book is available on Amazon.
Amazon USA:
Amazon India
