Vermindert de geldeconomie het geluk?

Samenvatting

Does market economy reduce happiness? In his latest book Robert Lane notes a considerable rise in incomes in the USA between 1972 and 1994 and claims that companionship and happiness have declined. He attributes that decline to market forces that press for money making at the expense of intimate bonds. This review article firstly shows that happiness did not decline in the USA in these years, but was actually rather stable on the balance. Secondly it mitigates the claim that companionship has dwindled and notes that money making and companionship are not necessarily antithetical. Still the article does not rule out that Lane is right and that there was a loss of happiness by too much priority for money making. Increased personal freedom may have compensated this loss. Extra happiness is conceivable if people get more freedom to revise their priorities.