Having More Won't Make You Happy

http://www.worldchanging.com/local/losangeles/archives//006353.html

I included the comments from the website as well:

Having More Won't Make You Happy

Greg Wendt
March 22, 2007 8:15 AM

As a financial advisor, I regularly meet the "haves and have-mores," and one thing is for sure: More does not necessarily mean more happy.

Barbara Walters interviewed billionaire media mogul David Geffen in a conversation published in More Than Money magazine: "She said, 'O.K., David, now that you’re a billionaire, are you happy?' He shot back without hesitation: 'Barbara, anybody who believes money makes you happy doesn’t have money.'"

It’s a brilliant insight, because money doesn’t make you happy. Today, Alternet posted an excerpt of Bill McKibben's recent book Deep Economy: The Wealth of Community and a Durable Future. I recommend the excerpt highly; it explores the idea that the foundation of our economic assumptions must be re-evaluated and re-tooled for our modern context.

Bill speaks to the heart of the matter: Our civilization has conditioned ourselves to believe that more is better, because we believe simply more makes us happy. We all know it's not true, but many of us are not willing to face our inner shadow work to really embody this truth in our day-to-day lives.

On a similar note, I find many in our circle of friends in the sustainability movement -- myself included -- living lives of accumulation and consumption even with a "modest" lifestyle. Yet as human beings, we know that more "stuff" won't make us happy.

I was speaking about this matter with my friend Marc Barasch, an accomplished author and current Executive Director of the Green World Campaign. Marc said: "The Buddhist tradition states that craving keeps the world of Samsara [eternal suffering] turning."

He continued: "What people want is love and community and the society tends to systematically undermine the means of attaining that, and consumerism is the addictive substitute. The pleasure of the addiction becomes dry and insipid and becomes simply maintenance dosage to avoid greater and greater pain. And it is this collective maintenance of our consumerism addiction that habitually and automatically devours the planet's resources."

So, since you and I have grown up in this system, we are best able to recognize the heart of the matter and begin to deal with the problem at its core. Simply put, in order for us all to manifest the sustainable world built on loving kindness to all beings, we just have to get down to this crucial "shadow work" inside of our own heart of hearts.

You know what I am talking about: inside yourself. You don't need anyone else to know what I am referring to, and you don't need anyone else to do this work inside yourself, right here, right now.

I am very excited that Bill McKibben will be here in Los Angeles on April 4 to discuss his new book with Tom Curwen, editor and writer at the Los Angeles Times. The talk will be at the LA Central Library at Fifth and Flower in downtown Los Angeles. Get more information here; RSVP here.

I look forward to seeing you at the event on the 4th!
Comments

I believe "consumer addiction" is a replacement for feeling alive and buying stuff seems to be a reaction to a missing human need.

Noted Chilean ecological economist Manfred Max-Neef defines nine distinct human needs that are both essential to us all and intrinsically related.

The Max-Neef categories of need are: SUBSISTENCE, PROTECTION, PARTICIPATION, IDLENESS, CREATIVITY, AFFECTION, UNDERSTANDING, IDENTITY, FREEDOM.

He points out that whenever we are systematically deprived of the opportunity to meet these individual needs we have a poverty in our lives. As we move forward with the "green" sustainable economy we must be mindful of the difference between needs, wants, and satisfiers. If we don't examine these distinctions along the way we may end up with different "stuff" in our lives and still lack one or more of the basic human needs.

Max-Neef, M. "Development and human needs." 1992. In Real-life economics: understanding wealth creation. Ekins, P. and Max-Neef, M. (Ed.) Routledge Publishers.

Posted by: Ron Durgin on March 23, 2007 8:02 AM

Outstanding perspective Greg. Glad to have a spokesperson for wealth management acknowledge the realities expressed here-that money does not, and never has, made anyone happy. It is love, community and positive contributions for the future of all living things that brings happiness. Thanks for such a correction to the consuming mentality.

Posted by: Dan Lavery on March 23, 2007 11:01 AM