By Dr. Gregg D. Jacobs

The adage that money can't buy happiness has been forgotten in our consumer society. Harvard University economist Juliet Schorr, author of The Overspent American, has described this "new consumerism," which equates contentment with the acquisition of material goods. Fueled by the technology of advertising—which seduces us with the message that who we are is tied to what we own, and that happiness is available if we spend and acquire—we are acquiring material goods at a greater rate: luxury homes, luxury cars, fancier gadgets and designer clothes.

Two incomes, zero happiness
In the quest for material goods, we find ourselves on a treadmill of earn and spend, earn and spend. And because we are spending and acquiring more, we must work more. We now spend more time working than ever before. Two-income families have become the norm, which means we have less time for leisure, ourselves, each other, our families and children.

One study of married, dual-income couples found that the number of hours spent working has risen almost seven hours a week over the past twenty years; and, that the pressure to manage the demands of work is highly stressful. It is not uncommon for parents today to work twelve or more hours per day, never seeing their children except on weekends. As a result, Western society has become, according to T. Berry Brazelton, the renowned Harvard pediatrician, the least child-and family- oriented society in the world. He believes materialism and acquisitions are a root cause of parents not knowing their children and the children not knowing their parents.

When Westerners were asked in a national survey what they believed would improve their quality of life, “more money” was the most frequent response. And in a survey of a quarter million students entering college, 75% of respondents reported that it was very important or essential that they become financially wealthy. In fact, making a lot of money outranked objectives such as helping others, developing a meaningful philosophy of life, and raising a family. And yet, in another survey of eight hundred college alumni, those who preferred a high income and job success to having close friends or a fulfilling marriage were twice as likely to describe themselves as “fairly” or “very” unhappy.

More goods are less good
For some, "more and bigger" is equated with “happiness and better.” Acquiring more things takes center stage in life and becomes more important than family or job. Recent studies by Dr. Richard Ryan and Dr. Tim Kasser, professors of psychology at the University of Rochester and Knox College, respectively, suggest not only that seeking satisfaction in material goods is unfulfilling, but people for whom affluence is a primary focus also tend to experience a high degree of anxiety and depression, a lower sense of well-being, and greater behavioral and physical problems.

Affluence itself is not the problem, but rather living a life where affluence is the focus. Extrinsic goals such as money and material possessions take away from goals that reflect genuine human needs: social relationships and internal skills such as self-awareness that are crucial for well-being. The more people strive for extrinsic goals such as money, the less robust their well-being. Subscribing to values that focus on materialism can actually make us sick.

The influence of affluence
Affluence does not increase happiness. Although affluence has climbed steadily over the past four decades, we are not happier. According to Dr. David Myers, an expert on the topic of subjective well-being and a professor of psychology at Hope College, the number of people reporting themselves as very happy has declined slightly over the past forty years. Myers notes that we are twice as rich and no happier compared to forty years ago, while the divorce rate has doubled, teen suicide tripled, reported violence almost quadrupled, and depression rates have soared, particularly amongst teens and young adults.

Compared to their grandparents, today's young adults grow up with much more affluence, slightly less happiness, and much greater risk of depression. Myers terms this conjunction of material prosperity and social recession the “modern paradox.” In his mind, it is hard to avoid a startling conclusion: our increased affluence over the past forty years has not been accompanied by any increased subjective well-being. This conclusion challenges modern materialism by suggesting that increased affluence has not boosted well-being.

In short, modern life is built on materialism, which has not improved well-being and may be detrimental to mental health. And because who we are is tied to what we own, our society thrives on individualism. We place an extreme amount of importance on individualism and exalt the self, in part, because individualism is profitable, and therefore powerful. However, we can no longer ignore what is now an established medical fact: the more people are seduced by materialism and extrinsic goals such as money, the more they deviate from things such as altruism and close social ties, which are vital to health.

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