A majority of Americans simply are not prosperous.
Having nice things, TV, mobile phones and other similar items reflects the overall product of industry. Those are technically luxuries.
All good, and welcome, but wealth, security needed for happiness us a different thing.
Wealth, in the basic human sense, is all about time and how much of it is availiable for people to assign purpose, rather than have that purpose mandated somehow by others or genuine need.
Happy people use that time in ways that they find rewarding, a core part of happiness.
In a macro sense, we as a nation are prosporous.
In a micro sense, people do not see that prosperity as basic wealth, and it manifests as their personal cost and risk exposure not matched to their income.
This costs them time, and limits on scope of desirable purpose on what portion of "free" time they have.
Having lots of money, that requires vast amounts of time to obtain and or service, is not wealth in the simoke human sense. Sans this basic wealth, happiness is much harder to achieve. Some people get happiness out of work. Most do not, and it ranges from the work being mundane to varied desire to work.
Secure people, not having to dedicate large amounts of time to meet basic needs, can be happy much easier, despite a lack of luxuries in their lives.
TL;DR: Reduce overall personal cost and risk exposure, and the time needed to do that, and happiness metrics will improve.
People need to be people. When they can't be who they are, do qhat they will do, they simply will not be happy no matter the luxuries they may find availiable to them.
>In a micro sense, people do not see that prosperity as basic wealth, and it manifests as their personal cost and risk exposure not matched to their income.
This isn't a magical mystery. It's very simple to explain. Wealth is a power law. An average is the most useless metric to use yet everyone still does it. In the same country with Manhattan, you have people with lead filled pipes and raw sewage on their front lawns because wealth is not distributed evenly.
And this isn't by accident. Wages for most working people have not kept up with inflation, and wages diverged from productivity since a little before the Reagan area. [0] The value people create doesn't evaporate, it goes to the top.
Having nice things, TV, mobile phones and other similar items reflects the overall product of industry. Those are technically luxuries.
All good, and welcome, but wealth, security needed for happiness us a different thing.
Wealth, in the basic human sense, is all about time and how much of it is availiable for people to assign purpose, rather than have that purpose mandated somehow by others or genuine need.
Happy people use that time in ways that they find rewarding, a core part of happiness.
In a macro sense, we as a nation are prosporous.
In a micro sense, people do not see that prosperity as basic wealth, and it manifests as their personal cost and risk exposure not matched to their income.
This costs them time, and limits on scope of desirable purpose on what portion of "free" time they have.
Having lots of money, that requires vast amounts of time to obtain and or service, is not wealth in the simoke human sense. Sans this basic wealth, happiness is much harder to achieve. Some people get happiness out of work. Most do not, and it ranges from the work being mundane to varied desire to work.
Secure people, not having to dedicate large amounts of time to meet basic needs, can be happy much easier, despite a lack of luxuries in their lives.
TL;DR: Reduce overall personal cost and risk exposure, and the time needed to do that, and happiness metrics will improve.
People need to be people. When they can't be who they are, do qhat they will do, they simply will not be happy no matter the luxuries they may find availiable to them.