Everyone says they want to be happy. The Declaration of Independence proclaims people have a right to pursue it. We say we want others to be happy, our children to be happy. And on and on . Unfortunately, in a competitive society, there are problems with happiness. It just doesn’t fit with the rest of the ethos .
For one thing it cannot be quantified. There is no “standard unit of happiness” as there is for money or distance. You cannot say a person with eight units of happiness is better off than one with two. How then, can you tell who is winning ?
We also prize property, which like other possessions, tends to be stable. Unfortunately happiness is a kind of transient illusion. It can appear for no apparent reason, and vanish just as quickly. We can’t store it in land holdings or a bank vault .
Worst of all, it is fickle. Clearly a person with more dollars is better off than a person with fewer. A clear winner (we like winners!) But somehow a beggar with the right attitude can actually be happier than those refusing to give him alms. Irrational! Yet we all want happiness.
And we work really hard hoping and believing that more money will bestow more joy. I guess sometimes it does. But that “sometimes” is pretty annoying .
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 