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Complex Numbers #961783 added June 30, 2019 at 12:35am
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https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/06/big-houses-american-happy/591...
Are McMansions Making People Any Happier?
Homes have gotten bigger, but Americans aren’t any more pleased with the extra space.
Let's get this out of the way first: When the headline is a question, chances are good that the answer is "no."
And second: What the hell is this obsession that article writers have with happiness? Is it a uniquely American thing, perhaps having something to do with the infamous phrase in the Declaration of Independence?
But according to a recent paper, Americans aren’t getting any happier with their ever bigger homes. “Despite a major upscaling of single-family houses since 1980,” writes Clément Bellet, a postdoctoral fellow at the European business school INSEAD, “house satisfaction has remained steady in American suburbs.”
As a corollary to that first sentence, people aren't getting any less happy, either. Could it be that there are other issues involved besides that ever-elusive, undefinable "happiness?"
Why, yes.
To be clear, having more space does generally lead to people saying they’re more pleased with their home. The problem is that the satisfaction often doesn’t last if even bigger homes pop up nearby. “If I bought a house to feel like I'm ‘the king of my neighborhood,’ but a new king arises, it makes me feel very bad about my house,” Bellet wrote to me in an email.
So, it's not all that important what you have, as long as your neighbors (literally, in this case) don't have more.
And there we have one of the biggest problems with America (and, presumably, other countries) today.
I once met the guy who was, at the time, the richest motherfucker in the world. His estimated net worth was something like $5 billion, which seems laughable now - but, even accounting for inflation since then, $5 billion is a lot of money. We happened to be taking the same elevator, and I recognized him. It was certainly not mutual - I was, and remain, nobody special - but we nodded amicably at each other. That was the extent of our interaction.
I didn't compare myself to him.
Some people have been dealing with this by going, in my opinion, too far in the other direction, purchasing and living in what's euphemistically known as "tiny houses," but I'll continue to call "trailers," because that's what they are. Then the race is about seeing who can live in the smallest trailer, of course. That becomes the new status symbol. I understand there was even a "reality" show about it, which played up the concept, because it was probably funded by trailer manufacturers. I also remember hearing that a lot of the people who ended up in those closets got fed up with the situation really quickly. Presumably, it works for some people, but I wouldn't be one of them. I'm... happy... with my perfectly average-sized (probably more on the small side nowadays) home. Which, I'd like to add smugly, is paid for - that's what's important to me.
Bellet sketches out an unfulfilling cycle of one-upmanship, in which the owners of the biggest homes are most satisfied if their home remains among the biggest, and those who rank right below them grow less satisfied as their dwelling looks ever more measly by comparison. He estimates that from 1980 to 2009, the size of the largest 10 percent of houses increased 1.4 times as fast as did the size of the median house. This means that the reference point many people have for what constitutes a big home has shifted further out of reach, just as many other lifestyle reference points have shifted in an age of pronounced wealth inequality.
"Unfulfilling," indeed. You know, there two basic ways to deal with something that doesn't make you happy: a) change the situation or b) get used to it. Of the two, (b) sounds more... well, fulfilling... in the long run.
This vicious cycle used to be called "keeping up with the Joneses," for obscure historical reasons having something to do with the ubiquity of the name "Jones" and how the saying wouldn't work as nicely with the other two high-frequency names in the US, Smith and Brown.
You're perfectly happy with your used Chevy until the neighbor gets a new Cadillac, so you run out and buy a BMW on credit. The neighbor responds by leasing a Mercedes. This goes on until one of you either gives up or declares bankruptcy.
Screw that.
Find happiness in other places. Or give up on the concept entirely, because happiness is, by nature, fleeting, and requires constant effort to capture once again, much as you keep having to set the treadmill higher to get the same exercise value out of it.
Paradoxically enough, giving up might be what finally brings you happiness. |
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