There, you happy now?
There, you happy now? | Metafilter points to a couple of scholarly articles about happiness. I thought the points about habituation and rivalry were very interesting.
I would say that habituation plays a big part in how happy or unhappy I am. I get used to the stuff I have ver quickly, and I have to make a conscious effort to enjoy it. It happens far too often that I chase the glitter of new stuff rather than simply enjoying what I have.
I don’t think rivalry is much of a factor for me. My brother makes considerably more than I do - he has for most of our working lives. However, that rarely makes me unhappy, because he lives almost a thousand miles away. It’s very rare that we compare incomes or “stuff”. On the other hand, Justin and Faith live close by, so our opportunities for comparing incomes are much more frequent. However, we’ve focused on different things - them on stability and us on gadgets, so again rivalry doesn’t come into play.
Basically, I feel that I’m better off than a lot of people, so I’m not too worried about economic rivalry in my pursuit of happiness.