Happiness in a world of machines and economic growth
In recent years, people are witnessing important changes in our society thanks to the unprecedented advance of science and technology and sustained economic growth throughout the years. In the declaration on science and the use of scientific knowledge, the United Nations Educational, Science and Culture (UNESCO)Life has increased considerably, new treatments for diseases have been discovered, has increased mass production, and finally highlights distances reduction thanks to the development of instant communications that have consolidated what could be called a global community. (UNESCO, S.f) Despite these advances, a series of indexes, including the Human Development Index (HDI) and the index of happiness, show how in the same period in which a scientific-technological and economic boom was given, the "happiness" levels of people seem to have varied more than in tiny proportions. On that basis, in this essay I intend to present a series of reasons why I consider hyperconsumism and our current production model are causes to explain the stagnation at the levels of happiness of people, making use of arguments reinforced by postulatesof renowned academics such as Lipovetsky, Bauman, among others and a series of renowned economists.
To have a better understanding of one of the most used concepts in this essay, I want to begin by defining what is understood as the economy of happiness, also known as the economy of subjective well -being or satisfaction with life. This is a variant of the economic discipline that emphasizes the need to evaluate and measure our levels of satisfaction with the life that we lead beyond just worrying about the level of income we perceive. For this reason, the economy of happiness needs other branches of knowledge such as psychology, sociology and neurology to be able to develop its theories and not suffer from the same limitations that the conventional economy presents (Foreign Affairs journal Latin America, 2016).
The pioneer of the Studies of the Economy of Happiness, the economist Richard Easterlin (1974) states that economic growth, understood as the general increase in income and abundance of products, is not accompanied by an increase in happiness of people andthat the relationship between these variables is not strictly direct. (Foreign Affairs Latin American Magazine, 2016) . For his part, the Peruvian economist, Jurgen Schuldt, in his book, "Human and Nature Development", proposes a wide range of hypothesis to explain the paradox between economic growth and happiness, among which the threshold hypothesis stand outof income, that of hedonic adaptation, of expectations and relative income in the social space, of increasing aspirations, the impact of externalities and the hypothesis of relational goods (Schuldt, 2012). Faced with this varied spectrum of possibilities to understand why happiness should not be confused with admission, I have been especially attracted to disaggregate the concepts involved in the hypothesis of growing aspirations and their link with the characteristic hyperneconsumism of contemporary society.
The hypothesis of growing aspirations explains the influence that changing aspirations of people on their well -being. Easterlin’s thesis (2003: 16) is that as income increases, aspirations also increase, so that well -being would not be modified over time. (Schuldt, 2012)
“(…) Material aspirations increase at the same rate as material possessions, and the greater that increase in possessions, the greater the increase in desires will also be. It is this differential change of aspirations, corresponding to the differential change in income, which explains the proof of happiness throughout the life cycle ”(Easterlin, 2003)
From the appointment it can be evidence. And this is where hyperneconsumism and our current production model and its link with the marginal increases of our subjective well -being levels enter. Thus, in a world where our consumption model exposes us to new and greater desires and needs and where our production model enslaves us to generate income and meet these needs, it is logical and sometimes evident, that our levels of satisfaction are notThey will increase at the same rate with which income is increased, because we do not make proper use of them to invest in what is really valuable. In his work, "paradoxical happiness", the French philosopher-sociologist Gilles Lipovetsky portrays this reality and shows us that, in the society in which we live, it is the same man, animal work, which without external coercion is exploited, the one thatIn an environment with excess positivity, he works hard to satisfy those desires that seem to have no end and that keep him locked behind the bars of hyperconsumism and hyperindividuality. (Lipovetsky, 2007) .
In the same line of the previous paragraph, the South Korean professor and philosopher Byung Chul –Han, in his book "The Society of Tiredness", mentions that depression, one of the growing pathologies of our modern world, is the pathological expression of failure and failure andThe dissatisfaction of people when they fail to respond to the imperative of performance (Byung Chul-Han, 2012). The Hikikomori, Japanese young people who remain locked in their homes by prolonged periods of time, are an expression of what, in extreme cases, generates the society of hyperconseumo, people with a kind of social fear to reintegrate into a world that, in appearanceIt has happier and more cohesive citizens, but in reality it is full of barriers that hinder communication and that beyond listening judges and sanctions those who do not want to be part of the vicious circle of production-consumption. In a society like that of Japan, where there has been strong and sustained economic growth in recent years, the case of Hikikomori is not minor because more and more Japanese young people who opt for this social isolation who opt for this social isolation.
The implications of living in a consumer society in which people are objectified as performance subjects for industries are much more dramatic. Byung-Chul Han, mentions that the late-modern society in which we live, is full of individuals who have lost the ability to listen, see and contemplate what happens in their environment (Byung Chul-Han, 2012) in order to "raise"the productivity levels that they wish to have in their jobs. In this regard, I fully agree with the opinion of Jeffrey Sachs, a renowned American economist, who says that “raising productivity is convenient, but not necessarily to spend more, but to have more time to strengthen those other areas where you are a person,But not necessarily consumer ”(El País, 2011) . In that sense, it is easy to note that happiness involves building our identity from social interactions and not only from our purchasing decisions, it implies ceasing to be autistic performance machines, unable to interact with others and stop being worriedfor always satisfying the expectations of others and our increasingly increasing material desires (Bauman, 2007).
Finally, and not to end this essay with a complete sense of negativity, I want to indicate that these brief reflections on our production and consumption model and the economy of happiness are to emphasize that human beings are much more than mere consumers, andthat our happiness also depends and to a greater extent on non -material needs that arise from human relationships. With this I do not want to reduce importance to the value of economic progress, because I consider that it is a vital step to encourage happiness. In this sense, I believe that what corresponds to us as a society is to worry more about building stronger social ties and properly use our time and income, so that we do not subordinate all our values to the search for profits. On the other hand, I consider that what corresponds to the decision makers is to investigate more the causes that affect the happiness of their countries, which may vary between one and the other for their cultural background and particularities of their territory andHistory, as well as establish public policies relevant to human happiness, because in the achievement of development it should not be forgotten that the ultimate goal is not to reach high indicators of per capita income, but to ensure that most people are satisfied with lifethat carries.
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