Synthesis Summary of 'The
U-bend of life' and 'The rich, the poor and Bulgaria' in The Economist of 18 December 2010
In our society, older people used to
be considered less happy than the young. However, it seems that our well-being does
not decline with age; instead, it follows a U-bend with an increase in happiness
after the mid-life crisis. This is the finding of some economists, who used a
factor other than money to measure human well-being.
According to some research, the following
four main factors seem to impact happiness: gender, personality, external
circumstances, and age.
Statistics show that women are
happier than men, even though they suffer from depression more often.
Personality also plays an important
role in our level of happiness. Researchers have demonstrated that extroverted
people are happier than the neurotic.
External circumstances, such as
relationships, education, health, and income, influence the way people feel, as
well. The first three factors are rather easy to understand; income is,
however, a much more complicated factor to interpret in statistics. It has been
proven that well-being depends on relative rather than absolute income. People
feel unhappy when they consider themselves poor in comparison to richer groups.
The last factor, namely age,
is the most important one in assessing well-being. The increase in happiness
after the mid-life crisis is explained by internal changes rather than external
circumstances. Older people know what is important for them. They do not focus on
long-term goals any more; instead, the 'now' and their feelings are what really
matter for them.
The idea manifested through the U-bend
interests some governments. On one side, happier people are healthier. On
the other side, older people's happiness helps them to manage the decline in
their productivity. Nowadays these two elements are very important in coping with the
growing size of our ageing labour force.
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