So It’s Not About Spending More But About Living a Better Life?
OVB, November 23, 2009
What level of material prosperity do you need in order to be satisfied with your life? 60 top representatives from economics, politics and the sciences sought to answer this question at the 4th Amerang Dispute, initiated and hosted by the Ernst Freiberger Foundation. It is a pressing issue for a society suffering from the consequences of a financial crisis that jeopardizes prosperity and personal well-being.
Entrepreneur Ernst Freiberger, Chairman of the Ernst Freiberger Foundation (left) and Prof. Dr. Meinhard Miegel, Scientific Director of the Amerang Dispute (second from left) greet renowned experts in happiness research: Prof. Dr. Jan Delhey, Prof. Dr. Eckhard Janeba, Dr. Claus Schäfer and Prof. Dr. Erich Witte (from right).
What level of material prosperity do you need in order to be satisfied with your life? 60 top representatives from economics, politics and the sciences sought to answer this question at the 4th Amerang Dispute, initiated and hosted by the Ernst Freiberger Foundation. It is a pressing issue for a society suffering from the consequences of a financial crisis that jeopardizes prosperity and personal well-being.
Amerang. Prof. Dr. Meinhard Miegel has been counting: the coalition treaty of the newly elected government uses the word “growth” 42 times. Yet the scientific director of the Amerang Dispute is convinced that focusing on the idea of growth will soon be history. In his welcoming speech, the foundation’s chairman Ernst Freiberger also critically commented on the fact “that growth has become a rallying cry again”, which signals that people currently look for an all too well-known way out of the crisis, a way that should be challenged.
Is society prepared to accept the consequences of economic stagnation or even of a negative development? The Amerang Dispute’s working group on contentment, consisting of top-level experts, commissioned the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Survey to question people about how they view the relationship between material prosperity and personal contentment with life. The outcome shows that the commonplace “money doesn’t make you happy” is true. No matter what generation, social class or gender the interviewees belonged to – most of them said that health, basic financial backing, close friends, a happy partnership and autonomy are the sources happiness, according to Miegel. 57 percent of the participants held that a good life does not depend on a lot of money but on caring for others and experiencing being loved and liked. In addition, 42 percent affirmed that more funds wouldn’t increase their happiness. 38 percent even said that they didn’t think less money would make them less happy.
The Dispute gave experts of happiness studies a forum to discuss the relationship between material prosperity and contentment, the former Federal President Prof. Dr. Roman Herzog was among the participants. Prof. Dr. Jan Delhey, a sociologist from the Jacobs University in Bremen said that Germany was well-prepared for a period of stagnating or declining growth because many people in Germany were already “postmaterialists”, meaning that they do not equate happiness with material assets. Moreover, because real income has been sinking in the past, people were already used to having to differentiate between essential requirements on the one hand and optional desires on the other. Therefore, the time has come for the German society not to become richer but better – for example by people doing more to protect the environment and global climate.
Prof. Dr. Eckhard Janeba, however, an economist from the University of Mannheim, was convinced that “the material aspect will remain the most significant and dominant factor”. One of the reasons why rising incomes do not necessarily effect a higher satisfaction rate is that expectations and demands augment accordingly. Negative growth may cause people to experience it in terms of loss, warned Dr. Claus Schäfer of the Hans Böckler Foundation. He also remarked that it was impossible for everyone to tighten their belt, because the unemployed and people with a very low income could not be further burdened.
Social-psychologist Prof. Dr. Erich H. Witte of the University of Hamburg just like Schäfer discussed the emergence of new goals for happiness, for example longevity and satisfaction. Witte called upon politicians to place more emphasis on these new values. America’s new President, Barack Obama, is a clear example that people respect it if someone stands up for values that do not only focus on material prosperity.
Will people in the future therefore not lead a more affluent life but a better one? Some of the participants of the discussion held that this was a very quixotic view while others expressed hope for a change of paradigm. Many people who search for true happiness will probably agree with a comment made by hostess Anja Freiberger: “Could it be possible that we have to learn again how to be happy?”
