Sources:
The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz
“From the ‘perfect’ salary to keeping up with the Joneses, here’s how money really affects your happiness” by Cory Stieg
In the TED talk, Barry Schwartz begins with a heavy conclusion: that the more exponential the choices you have, the less happy you will be. Throughout the talk, he proves this through various premises which he breaks down into 4 main arguments: 1. Regret and anticipated regret, 2. Opportunity costs, 3. Escalation of expectations, 4. Self- blame. Similarly, but using an opposite approach, Cory Stieg gives evidence throughout the article to finally suggest that after a certain level of income, happiness is essentially within our hands to secure. Schwartz’s argument was not that you do not need money at all or that having options and choices are inherently bad, but rather that the more you have, the more you set yourself up for disaster. Stieg echoed a similar sentiment, that it is not that you do not need money to have emotional- wellbeing and satisfaction, but rather that after a certain income threshold, around $65,000- money no longer correlates to happiness. I agree with the concept that the illusion of choices often leads to dissatisfaction- which we can observe in everyday life. ‘If only I had done this, I would have been happier’ is a refrain that we don’t even realize is constantly playing in our minds. Choices lead to greater confusion. When you have the option of 50 shirts while trying to buy 1, you will continue to think that perhaps if I bought the other one, it would have been better quality, it would have lasted longer, it would have been more worth the money, etc. Choosing a restaurant when there are 2 options is infinitely easier than choosing one when there are 20, trying to make a decision leads to arguments and fights between siblings in a family because one wants Chinese food while the other is craving Italian.
