The Race for Relative Wellbeing

by Kim, September 8, 2009 at 6:00am

In honor of Labor Day, Andrew C. Revkin at the New York Times wrote about On Work, Wealth, and Wellbeing and the move towards economic indicators that include happiness. It's a subject dear to New Dream's heart, but one quote from an earlier article on the subject stood out for me: "In the study, the researchers, Sara J. Solnick and David Hemenway, gave the subjects a choice of earning $50,000 a year in a world where the average salary was $25,000 or $100,000 a year where the average was $200,000.



About 50 percent of the participants, the researchers found, chose the first option, preferring to be half as prosperous but richer than their neighbors."

It's a step in the right direction to be moving towards more holistic economic indicators, but is it also possible to move beyond judging our own wellbeing by comparing ourselves to others? Knowing that there are people that might be worse off than we are can be incentive to be thankful for what we've got. But how many of us would volunteer to be part of a lower class in society, even when that class was still living very comfortably at $100,000 a year? Class by its nature is a relative thing, and it's a powerful driving force behind consumerism, which conflates identity with the kind of stuff you buy. Keeping up with the Joneses is like a Caucus Race from Alice in Wonderland--all movement and no sense. Choosing to "lose"--to step outside the definition of success as more stuff than others--brings its own rewards ultimately. This new kind of wellbeing requires a leap of faith, faith that giving up on the race to success doesn't really mean giving up happiness.

The Caucus-Race, from Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

`What is a Caucus-race?' said Alice...

`Why,' said the Dodo, `the best way to explain it is to do it.' ...

First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, (`the exact shape doesn't matter,' it said,) and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no `One, two, three, and away,' but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out `The race is over!' and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, `But who has won?'