Summary
The TED talk speaker describes the illusion of choice and why the more choices we have does not mean that there is a greater likelihood that we might attain happiness. But rather, we often feel regret and not just regret, but apathy as well. Barry Schwartz describes to us the core tenets of the West and how Capitalism has sought to increase happiness by giving us more freedom to do that which might make us happy. The West has decided that in order to increase freedom, we must increase choice. The more choices, the more free you are from any given choice, and hence, the more tools you will have at your disposal to ultimately discover that which makes you happy. But the abundance of choice has detracted the satisfaction that we get from making a choice. We might make a choice, like say, buying a new car. But in light of the fact that you could’ve got a Mercedes, or a BMW, or a Tesla, you might not be as happy as you should be with your 2024 Honda Civic. The existence then, of the other options, diminishes that happiness for no real good reason. On top of this is the notion that an abundance of choice might wear down your interest in any given choice and lead to the biggest killer of happiness, which is none other than apathy.
The second article from CNBC essentially informs us what minimum income is required for emotional well being, and what ideal income generally provides us with life satisfaction. The article puts the numbers at 60 - 75k (annually) for emotional well being, and around 95k for life satisfaction. And the article also informs us of the notion, which I agree with, and which has long been shown by the field of Psychology to be true, that purpose is what determines happiness, after those minimum income thresholds have been met.
Boatloads of money won’t bring you happiness unless you find purpose. We need not look further than the lives of celebrities that we too often idolize. Robin Williams, Justin Bieber (before he found purpose in his Christian Faith), Marilyn Monroe, Jim Carrey, Mac Miller. Extremely wealthy people who still had their own struggles and some of them who are not with us today because their struggles were so intense that they ended their lives. Now we can call them entitled brats all we want, but the reality of their emotional state cannot be denied. So one must ask, why is it that ultra wealthy people are not happy? I often like to think that if I had a billion dollars, I would be endlessly ecstatic, but obviously, that is all too often not the case for our ultra-wealthy class. While Barry Schwartz provides us with a very reasonable argument as to why it is the case that lots of money and consequently, an abundance of choice actually cause us more distress than happiness, I think there is a deeper issue at the root of all this. Western ideology has conditioned us to worship the material, and not the spiritual. Everything, from the moment we enter kindergarten, all the way through to college and our eventual occupations is about money. We have been conditioned to worship the idea of money, and to chase it with every fiber of our being at every moment of our lives. I wont harp on this too long, because I think you know where I’m going with this because you’ve likely heard it a million times. So I will instead invite you to ponder on that which I was just about to illustrate, which is to think about the ways that we all sell all of our precious time until the day we die, all for money.
You've heard it said that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." But don't be fooled, Thomas Jefferson, a founding father of this nation, and a wealthy white man who owned slaves, did not think that all men had the unalienable right to pursue their happiness, lest he would have freed the slaves he owned so that they may pursue happiness. No, not at all. What he meant to say was "all white men are created equal... they are endowed by their Constitution (not their Creator) with certain unalienable rights... among these are the Pursuit of Money." Unsurprisingly, 250 years later, the America that was founded upon the ideals of our founding fathers still remains today. America's ultra-wealthy class is predominantly white men, and the average American, along with the ultra-wealthy, are never in pursuit of happiness, but rather, are in the constant, never-ending pursuit of money...
