רוצה להיות מבסוט?
מסתבר שהעמקת פערים חברתיים אינה פוגעת באושר:
The GSS shows that in 1972, 30 percent of the population said that they were “very happy” with their lives; in 1982, 31 percent; in 1993, 32 percent; in 2004, 31 percent. In other words, no significant change in reported happiness occurred — even as income inequality increased by nearly half. Happiness levels have certainly shown some fluctuations over the last three decades, but income inequality explains none of them.
מצד שני, ההרגשה שאפשר לשפר את המצב הכלכלי, כן תורמת לאושר:
But happiness does rise if people believe that their families have a chance of improving their standard of living. That belief is worth 12 percentage points in the likelihood of being "very happy." The GSS asked respondents, "The way things are in America, people like me and my family have a good chance of improving our standard of living — do you agree or disagree?" Those who agreed were 44 percent more likely than those who disagreed to say that they were "very happy," 40 percent less likely to say that they felt "no good at all" at times, and 20 percent less likely to say that they felt like failures. In other words, those who don’t believe in economic mobility — for themselves or for others — are not as happy as those who do.
