Material anxiety

Beyond Brushstrokes

Material anxiety

By Marivic Rufino

"There is more to happiness than financial security" -Dylan Evans

Emotion: The Science of Sentiment

Sociologists have made studies and surveys on the quality of life, happiness and money of people in different parts of the world. Over the past five decades, the comparative charts of happiness vis-a-vis a country’s per capita GDP show a staggering conclusion. Having more money and material wealth does not necessarily make people happier than if they had less money.

In the USA, Japan and Germany, the polls reveal that despite prosperity and financial success, people do not feel much happier than before. The global crisis has aggravated the collective feeling of insecurity and driven to some individuals to acts desperation.

Some people believe that the pursuit of money is their primary goal. It is their idol, the summit of success. To them, material wealth can purchase a lifestyle of luxury, a coterie of friends and satellites, power, fame. The warped belief is that being rich equals the pinnacle of life.

Greed drives them in a stampede on the fast lane, no matter who gets hurt along the way. The almighty credit card and lots of cash can buy many wonderful gadgets, houses, cars, jewels and limitless luxuries. However, the novelty of acquisition is temporary. The buying shopping splurge is an addiction, a compulsion to have more, want more, and to envy or covet what others have.

For many years, easy credit in the USA, for example, also allowed people buy things they could not really afford to maintain. The recession hit and they lost their houses and cars when they lost their jobs.

What many people may often forget is that contentment is priceless. It arises from living a purposeful, fulfilling life. The essentials of happiness are found in the values of a close-knit family and true friends, in being able to help others and going beyond oneself.

Happiness unfolds from the gradual development of a spiritual sense, and achieving a balance in one’s life. The more important things in life cannot be bought with cash and a credit card. A grand mansion does not necessarily make a person very happy. It may show status and success that would impress others who are of the same mindset. (That explains the fantasy houses with ornate decor and the ego-boosting mountain climbing of social arrivistes.)

Keeping up, upstaging the neighbors and dazzling the competitors all make the individual vulnerable to social anxiety.

A TIME poll in the USA revealed that happiness increased as income levels reached $50,000 a year. Beyond that amount, a larger income did not register a dramatic effect. Data from psychological research show that a person’s well being does not have a significant relationship with his income level. In their studies, sociologists have found out that there is a phenomenon called "reference anxiety." This means that most people tend to compare themselves with others. They judge their possessions in comparison with other people.

The greater the inequality of income distribution, the greater the anxiety. Having moneyed elite that lives much better than the middle-class creates anxiety for the latter.

Visible wealth (the kind that is flaunted or conspicuous) triggers dissatisfaction -- and envy -- among those who have less. Comparative voyeurism has its setbacks. The insecure want things beyond their reach. That is the pitfall of "keeping up." The Web and television, glossy magazines with society pages, gossip rags show the kind of fabulous lifestyles of the rich and famous (but not necessarily happy) celebrities, the nouveaux riches and members the elite.

Edward Diener, a psychologist at the University of Illinois, observed that what people want -- "in material things and life experiences -- has increased almost exactly in lockstep with the postwar earnings curve."

Observe how people climb the economic ladder. They feel grateful at first. Then they start focusing on what they still don’t have. They tend to upgrade their friends, trading in the good old ones with newly minted upscale acquaintances who belong to the higher strata.

Thus, we have a former middle class couple aspiring for an upper middle class or upper class cachet. There is always something better. The grass is always greener in another pasture, farm or hacienda. Moving up means spending more and having a high style life.

Does it bring happiness automatically? No -- just a fleeting sense of having arrived, at last. Soon the anxiety creeps in. There should be more and more. The insecure individual does not want to topple from the ladder.

Amid the affluence of developed countries, the urban poor have a different predicament. When compared to their counterparts in the developing countries there is a marked contrast. To illustrate, the survey reports that the street people in Calcutta, India are happier than their homeless counterparts in Fresno, California. Why?

"We learn the shortcomings of our culture," remarked Hetan Shah of the New Economics Foundation, a British think tank.

In the context of the study, many of the so-called successful people are not really happy. Something inside is missing. Soul?

Albert Einstein wrote, "Sometimes our light goes out; but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light."

Cultural Notes: "Romanza II Art Exhibit" is on its last day at The Peninsula Manila Gallery, 3/F. This show is for the benefit of St. Mary’s House (for young girls). This column began in 1993 with an article about St. Mary’s and the noble mission of the Oblate Sisters of the Most Holy Redeemer. And all my exhibits and productions since then have supported this mission.