The column Brian links to below makes for discouraging reading. In an attempt to lighten the mood, I offer the following, as a sort of “bright side” to our current economic woes: With less money to spend, people are finding that they may in fact be happier without it.
[T]he practices that consumers have adopted in response to the economic crisis ultimately could — as a raft of new research suggests — make them happier. New studies of consumption and happiness show, for instance, that people are happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material objects, when they relish what they plan to buy long before they buy it, and when they stop trying to outdo the Joneses. . . .
[M]any [consumers] have been, well, happily surprised by the pleasures of living a little more simply. The Boston Consulting Group said in a June report that recession anxiety had prompted a “back-to-basics movement,” with things like home and family increasing in importance over the last two years, while things like luxury and status have declined.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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“There’s been an emotional rebirth connected to acquiring things that’s really come out of this recession,” says Wendy Liebmann, chief executive of WSL Strategic Retail, a marketing consulting firm that works with manufacturers and retailers. “We hear people talking about the desire not to lose that — that connection, the moment, the family, the experience.”
Scholars here talk about “hedonic adaptation” — “a phenomenon in which people quickly become used to changes, great or terrible, in order to maintain a stable level of happiness.” Which is a fancy way of saying that buying new things makes us happy for a while, but the sensation eventually wears off, and then we have to buy new things. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Instead, anticipating a purchase (and working hard to obtain it) and then purchasing smaller things that reinforce our connections with other people can help break that cycle.
Of course, this isn’t exactly breaking news — we’re all familiar with the classic deathbed scenario where you look back on your life and wish for more time with your family, not more stuff — but nothing helps focus the mind like an economic downturn.