ultranomics

Happiness is…..

Happiness is such a vague concept, one that means so many different things to different people. In economics terms I guess one could argue that happiness is that state of being which we spend our working hours in the pursuit of. There are those lucky few who actually enjoy the work they do and who therefore derive happiness from their jobs. Yet still even those people are not totally happy. They still aim for a mythical time, somewhere in the future, when they will have no financial worries, all their reasonable desires will be purchasable, they will have leisure time, good health, an esteemed status amongst their peers, and their family around them will be in a similar state of affairs. Yes I know that is very generic, but I reckon that’s a reasonable shot at the transcendent question.

I wonder what my father’s idea of happiness was when he arrived in uk 50 years ago in search of a better life? At that time I think the majority of those desires mentioned above probably applied, but in totally different proportions to today. For one thing, the sense of family responsibility of economic migrants from Asia in those days was very high compared to today, and the happiness derived from knowing you were supporting your loved ones in the village (who mostly never turned out to be thankful) ranked high on the list. Those guys were highly altruistic. Personal comfort and possessions ranked much further down than is the case today. Even we, their children here in the uk had to keep our requirements to a bare minimum (oh the stories I could tell of scrimping and saving!!) But you know what, we didn’t know any better, and I guess we were happy. In fact we were truly happy – we at least had the love of our parents. Benjamin Franklin wrote in “Poor Richard’s Almanack” that “A child thinks that 20 pounds and 20 years can never be spent.” I remember thinking that!

For my generation (the 2nd generation british asians) reaching adulthood in the uk towards the end of the 20th century, our future desires and goals were like a carrier wave. On that carrier wave was piggy-backed the signal transmitted from the hearts of our parents. After their industrious achievements and success of paying the debt of servitude to those back home, their youth was gone, and they now made a vow to not let their children endure the same soul-destroying treadmill. Hence the rise of the doctor-lawyer-accountant-engineer army of british asians amongst whom I can be counted.

Our generation now sees happiness through the eyes of the 21st century. Our concepts put leisure and personal pleasure far higher up on that list. Family responsibility is somewhat further down (although still there). The experience of our forefathers has been diluted, perhaps even lost. What they learnt through bitter hard graft and toil is evident in the house, or in some cases houses, which they bequeath us and in the businesses they pass on to us. Their emphasis on saving can be seen in the pensions which they receive each month. Their globalised equity is evident whenever you travel back to your village or town of origin back in Pakistan/India etc and people there show you some respect (more so if you flash some cash but its there even if you don’t as long as your dad once did!).

In this way, to some degree, our parents ultimately achieved their happiness. We are still looking for ours.

With the new Great Depression upon us, we may get a chance to revert to older fashioned pathways to happiness. Ways which involve saving and working hard before ‘earning’ the right to own a house or a large car. We may find ourselves getting pleasure from more of the things that don’t cost – the walks in the park, the mountain hike, the nights in playing monopoly or watching a dvd, cooking a pizza with the kids.

The coming year will bring mixed blessings to us in the West. On the one hand we will have a toning down of our consumerist tendencies forced upon us, but on the other hand we just may realise that happiness was never about all that stuff anyway.

Wishing all our readers every happiness and success for 2009.