| |
|
Starred and striped happiness
Happiness is the true obsession of the Americans. While the rest of the world was mostly preoccupied with survival and escape from suffering, and certainly not the pursuit of happiness, in the United States they even thought to include it in their 1776 Declaration of Independence. It is only natural, over 200 years later, to ask oneself what has happened to this inalienable and universal right on a par with the right to life and freedom?
The Pew Research Center has tried to answer this question with its February 2006 study “Are We Happy Yet?”
Life is something wonderful for 84% of the Americans interviewed, say the results. What is more, 34% declare themselves “very happy,” while 50% were “quite happy” and 15% said they were “not particularly unhappy.” For the last 30 years this situation has stayed more or less the same.
From the same study it emerges that almost half of those interviewed (49%) with an income over $100.000 consider themselves very happy. This incidence drops down to 24% for people with an income of $30.000 or less.
Françoise Sagan the author of the existentialist best-seller Bonjour Tristesse, declared cynically that she would prefer to cry in a Cadillac rather than a 2-CV. Presumably, even if the fact of not having economic worries isn’t a sufficient condition itself for happiness, it certainly won’t cause unhappiness…
Religion helps too. 43% of practising believers interviewed claimed to be very happy. This percentage drops to 31% for those who involve themselves in religious functions less than once a month, and down to 26% for those who rarely visit a place of worship.
Among other, more or less unpredictable results, the survey indicates that couples are happier than single people, Republicans are happier than Democrats, White and Hispanic people are happier than Black people.
Lastly, pensioners are not happier than workers (a hint to the government to raise the pensionable age?). Pets don’t bring greater joy to their owners. Surprisingly, kids are not “the pride and joy” of their parents lives.
(16/06/2006)
print
|
|
|
|
|
