1,721,167 research outputs found
Manifesto per la felicità. [Titolo e sottotitolo in lingua giapponese]: Come passare dalla società del ben-avere a quella del ben-essere
No full text“Manifesto per la felicità: Come passare dalla società del ben-avere a quella del ben-essere”
No full textViviamo in paesi ricchi, ci siamo affrancati dalla povertà di massa e abbiamo accesso ai beni di consumo, all’istruzione, alla sanità, a una vita più lunga e sana. Eppure ognuno di noi avverte nell’aria il serpeggiare di un’insoddisfazione diffusa, di un malessere e un disagio psicologico che si esprimono in una dolente e ostinata litania che passa di bocca in bocca: la mancanza di tempo. Viviamo di corsa in mezzo a individui frettolosi. E a mancare è prima di tutto il tempo delle relazioni con gli altri, sacrificate sull’altare del benessere materiale, che conosce due soli imperativi: lavoro e consumo. Siamo più ricchi di beni e sempre più poveri di relazioni. Ecco perché siamo sempre più infelici. È questo il quadro desolante confermato dagli studi di varie scienze sociali sulla «felicità» nei paesi a più alto grado di sviluppo. Ma davvero per divenire più ricchi economicamente dobbiamo per forza essere poveri di relazioni interpersonali, di benessere, di tempo, di ambiente naturale? Davvero non esiste un’altra strada? Parte da queste basilari domande l’analisi e la proposta di un economista che da anni studia il tema della felicità nelle società avanzate. Perché i paesi ricchi non sono riusciti e non riescono a coniugare sviluppo economico e benessere? Perché i dati evidenziano che la felicità non è migliorata dal secondo dopoguerra, e anzi in certi casi, come negli Stati Uniti, è addirittura peggiorata? Ad attenderci in queste pagine è dunque un viaggio attraverso le cause e le soluzioni dell’insoddisfazione contemporanea. Il cuore del problema è che lo sviluppo economico si è accompagnato a un progressivo impoverimento delle nostre relazioni affettive e sociali. Questo tipo di sviluppo non solo non produce benessere ma crea anche enormi rischi per la stabilità economica, come la crisi attuale dimostra. Essa infatti è il prodotto di un’organizzazione sociale che genera la desertificazione delle relazioni umane. Ecco dunque perché il nostro sistema economico e molti aspetti della nostra esperienza sia individuale che collettiva – la famiglia, il lavoro, i media, la vita urbana, la scuola, la sanità e persino la nostra democrazia – hanno bisogno di un profondo cambiamento culturale e organizzativo. Governi e amministrazioni locali, partiti e movimenti politici, imprenditori, manager, genitori, docenti, medici e noi tutti abbiamo la possibilità e la necessità di riprogettare il nostro mondo: coniugare prosperità economica e felicità è necessario e possibile. Cambiare la scuola. Cambiare le città. Cambiare lo spazio urbano. Ridurre il traffico. Ridurre la pubblicità. Cambiare il sistema sanitario. Sono alcune delle proposte concrete che compongono un vero e proprio manifesto per la felicità
Building sustainability through greater happiness
Full text linkThe current unsustainable growth of the world economy is largely a consequence of the crisis of social capital experienced by much of the world’s population. Declining social capital leads economies towards excessive growth, because people seek, in economic affluence, compensation for emotional distress and loss of resources caused by scarce social and affective relationships. To slow down economic growth requires an increase in social capital that is a fundamental contributor to happiness. From a wide range of possible approaches to increasing present happiness, this article suggests policies that would shift the economy to a more sustainable path. It focuses on a more politically sustainable set of proposals for a green ‘new deal’ than some of those currently under discussion
Social capital as disease prevention
Full text linkIncreasing demand for healthcare in developed countries raises concerns about the sustainability of spending on healthcare. Building on epidemiological, medical, economic, sociological and psychological research, I argue that a well-being and social capital crisis largely explains rising healthcare demand. There is compelling evidence that increasing dissatisfaction has caused an increase in morbidity and mortality rates in the US. A main policy recommendation is to tackle declining connections and the spread of social isolation in order to increase well-being and health. I review literature suggesting three domains where policies for social capital can be implemented: urban planning, schooling and regulation of advertising. Moreover, a crisis of trust between physicians and patients underlies the increasing phenomenon of defensive medicine that weighs substantially on healthcare spending. Policies aimed at tackling defensive medicine are discusse
Twenty-five years of materialism: do the US and Europe diverge?
Full text linkUsing data from the World Values Survey and the European Values Study, we
compare the trends of materialism over the last quarter of century among the US and six
major European countries: France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Great Britain and Sweden. We
use the definition of materialism adopted by positive psychologists. We find that the trends
in Europe and in the US diverged. In the US materialism increased, while in Europe it
decreased. However, some mixed patterns arise. In particular, Great Britain, Spain and
Sweden showed some symptoms of an increase of materialistic values, although they were
far less pronounced compared to the American ones. As far as the levels of materialism are
concerned, it is interesting that, according to most of our measures, Americans were
relatively less materialistic at the beginning of our period of observation. Yet, towards the
end of the period they scored very high in the ranking of materialism in our sample of
countries
Social Participation and Hours Worked
No full textWe investigate the relationship between social participation and the hours worked in the market. Social participation is the component of social capital that measures individuals’ engament in groups, associations and non-governmental organizations. We provide a model of consumer choice where social participation may be either a substitute or a complement to material consumption – depending on whether participation is instrumentally or non-instrumentally motivated – and where a local environment with greater social participation increases the return to individual participation. We carry out an empirical investigation of this framework using survey data on United States for the period 1972-2004. We find that non-instrumental social participation substantially decreases the hours worked, while instrumental social participation substantially increases them. Moreover, evidence is consistent with the idea that a local environment with greater social participation fosters individual social participation
Negative externalities, defensive expenditures and labor supply in an evolutionary context
No full textIn this model, well-being depends on leisure, on an environmental renewable resource, and on a non-storable output, which can substitute for the environmental resource or can satisfy needs different from those satisfied by the resource. Individuals have free access to the environmental resource, which is subject to negative externalities: that is, is depleted by the production and consumption of the output. Individuals react to negative externalities by increasing their labour supply in order to produce substitutes for the diminishing resource. The increase in production and consumption that ensues generates further deterioration of the future quality or quantity of the free resource, thus giving rise to a self-reinforcing process. Multiple equilibria and ‘critical mass effects’ are consistent with the functioning of this economy and the resulting level of aggregate production may be higher than is socially desirable
The role of social capital in enhancing factor productivity: does its erosion depress per-capita GDP?
No full textWe aim at reconciling Putnam's claim that social capital has declined in the U.S. in the last decades with the satisfactory growth performance of the U.S. economy over the same period. This puzzle originates from the fact that - according to most literature - social capital enhances factor productivity (mainly by reducing defiant and opportunistic behavior). We model the hypotheses that the expansion of market activities weakens social capital formation, and that society reacts to the decline in social capital by spending more to protect property and enforce contracts. We show that this process may lead to a higher GDP level. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
Why are People so Unhappy? Why do They Strive so Hard for Money? Competing Explanations of the Broken Promises of Economic Growth
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