August 17, 2006

Researchers at several prestigious institutions in America have concluded that the widespread belief that high income leads to happiness is false. Their studies suggest that people with above average income, while relatively satisfied with their lives, are barely any happier than those with lower income, writes Dr Syed Amir

Caliph Abdur Rehman III (912-961 AD) was the most powerful and magnificent ruler of Muslim Spain, his realm stretching from the slopes of the Pyrenees in the north to the barren rocks of Gibraltar in the south. During his 50 year rule, envoys and delegations from monarchs around the world came to Cordoba, loaded with gifts and tribute, in quest of an audience with the Caliph, and often waiting for months before being received by him. His royal court at Madinat-uz-Zehra presented an aura of unprecedented opulence and splendour that dazzled and intimidated his visitors.

When Abdur Rehman died at the age of 75, his suzerainty over his realm was unchallenged, Andalusia was secure and the royal treasury brimmed with gold. All this vast power and wealth aside, happiness had remained an elusive commodity for the great sovereign. According to the 17th century Muslim scholar and historian, al Maqqari, the Caliph at his deathbed revealed that during his 50 years of rule, he had kept a careful count of the days when he felt truly happy, and those were only 14.

The experience of the Caliph is not unique. Wealth is not a source of unmitigated pleasure. For some rich people, giving away money brings a greater joy than making or accumulating it. Most recently, the American billionaire Warren Buffett, announced that he would donate 85 per cent of his holdings in stock market, amounting to about $31billion at this time, to charity. The bulk of his donation will be given to The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, established by the world’s richest man and his wife.

The Buffett contribution, representing the single largest charitable gift ever made, will double the current assets of the Foundation which has invested millions of dollars in combating diseases, especially among children in Africa and Asia. The rich people who give their wealth to charity, in preference to bequeathing it all to their children, live by unusually high moral principles. Warren Buffett is quoted as saying, “A very rich person should leave his children enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing.” He has followed his own advice par excellence.

The idea that money and wealth do not ensure happiness seems counter-intuitive in the face of common assumption that rich people must be happy. However, the nexus of wealth and happiness has never been tested in a systematic scientific study. Recently, some researchers at several prestigious institutions in America decided to take a look at the evidence to determine whether it supported or refuted the hypothesis that money does not make people happy.

Drs Kahneman, Krueger and their colleagues have analysed the available data collected by other researchers over time, and have published their findings in one of the world’s most prestigious journals. They have concluded that the widespread belief that high income leads to happiness, is false. Their studies suggest that people with above average income, while relatively satisfied with their lives, are barely any happier than others with lower income. If anything, they tend to be more stressed, and do not spend more time in enjoyable activities than those with lower incomes.

While money was not linked to satisfaction, the authors did find that a family has to have a certain level of earning to be comfortable. However, once this threshold ($1,000 or Rs60,000 per month) is reached, additional money does not contribute to a feeling of greater happiness or contentment. In support of their theory, the authors have cited the example of Japan, where general income between 1958 and 1987 rose five times, but there was no corresponding increase in the feeling of contentment or well-being, as assessed in a survey of the population.

Also, it has been a common observation that people winning big money in lotteries are very happy initially, but the feeling is only temporary. Soon, they get used to their new status, and, thereafter, the usual pattern of happiness and sadness is re-established. Similarly, employees receiving promotions or big salary increases from their companies experience a transient feeling of euphoria, giving way to the usual frustrations of everyday life.

Why does money have no enduring effect on people’s feeling of well-being and happiness? A number of reasons have been advanced by the authors to explain their conclusions. Dr Krueger, one of the leading authors of the paper, is quoted as saying that once people’s income rises above the level of poverty, there is not much money can do to relieve the stress in their daily lives, such as concerns they might have about their children, worries related to their domestic lives or stress arising from professional difficulties. Also, as earnings rise, people quickly get accustomed to it, and their needs for more consumer goods and desire for a more affluent lifestyle develop concurrently.

With the rise in their income, most people start to spend more time in work-related activities, investing longer hours at their office or business, rather than in pleasurable pursuits, such as sports, exercise or even socialising. The authors speculate that the super rich in America, such as Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, probably never get an opportunity to discover and enjoy the simple pleasures of life that are freely accessible to the less affluent, because of their punishing work schedules.

In their essay, the researchers pose the question: why do most people willingly pursue a hectic and frantic lifestyle just to make more money, knowing that it will not bring them extra happiness? The simple answer is that most of us have been brought up to equate more money with greater happiness.

Historically, we know that not everyone has subscribed to this doctrine. Even before the results of modern researches were available, the lives of the Sufi saints of India in medieval times provided powerful lessons that fulfillment and contentment is not dependent on money or possessions. Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, and Nizamuddin Aulia and many other Sufis led a life of deprivation and poverty, while teaching universal peace and harmony to all mankind. They had undoubtedly attained a state of transcendental tranquillity and contentment without acquiring any worldly possessions or material comforts. Modern science has not revealed any new sources of serenity and enlightenment that had not been already known to these sages’ centuries ago.

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