Selfishness, Greed and Capitalism

Selfishness, Greed and Capitalismwork shows that we need to ‘ ‘‘dethrone growth” as ourobjective for society’ (Peck 2012). If growth is to be dethronedthen some other objective must replace it, and yetthe point that is often missed about the happiness data isthat if economic growth has failed to increase well-beingthen so has everything else. Every development of the lastsixty years – the rise in life expectancy, the creation of thewelfare state, the changes in the rates of crime, divorceand unemployment – has, by the logic of the ‘paradox ofprosperity’, had no impact on levels of well-being. Thosewho dismiss the benefits of growth while claiming thathappiness levels will be raised by reducing inequality andincreasing public spending must contend with the factthat Easterlin’s evidence suggests that greater governmentspending in recent decades has not improved well-being,nor has greater inequality reduced it.A further point that is often overlooked is that therewere no happiness surveys before the 1940s and so it is notas if well-being was rising before the post-war boom andthen suddenly flat-lined. For all we know, happiness levelshave been flat since Roman times. There is no way of knowing.Nor do we have a counterfactual. We do not know whatwould have happened to Western happiness if there hadbeen economic stagnation or decline (although the lowerhappiness scores in the former USSR give us a clue). All weknow is that rich countries are happier than poor countriesand rich people are happier than poor people.The obvious explanation for the supposed paradox ofprosperity – which Easterlin himself gave in 1974 – is thatpeople’s happiness is relative to their aspirations and their100