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Sex, Money and the Pursuit of Happiness

February 21, 2008 | Author: Travis | Filed under: Biology, Economics

In Adam Smith’s groundbreaking review of economics, “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, he presents the idea that individuals pursuing their own interests would end up making each other richer. His predictions have been validated by time in a way that he never could have imagined. What the world has discovered since is that all the new wealth has not bought happiness.

Money not bring happiness? This news should not be shocking. Studies on happiness have shown this for decades and journalism pieces like this recent one from Newsweek have spread the data tables and relatively unbiased observations into exciting news articles and social critiques. The reader is often walked through a commentary that raises questions about how reality and public perception could be so estranged and concludes with a scientifically verified and feel-good report that relationships are far more important than bank accounts.

What these articles do not address is the reason that people place such importance on money. The answer, like the answer to so many other questions of human nature lies in our genes, in biological needs and evolutionary past. In current society, money is equated with status and the pursuit of status is a commonality across all human cultures and mammalian world. This inherent need to maintain a competitive edge has lead to an economic arms race that is focused solely on increasing social status.

The drive for status in both animals and humans lies in the pursuit of attracting mates and reproduction. In nature, the core requirements for survival are food and water. The animal with the highest status was the one who could successfully provide for themselves, their family or their mates. Today someone of middle-class can support a family, the equivalent of a savannah Zebra with water access and plenty of water. The difference between a satisfied zebra and human lies in brain complexity that allows people to focus on what their neighbor has and they don’t for extended periods of time. Added money brings people status, but no equivalent boost in reproductive success.

The importance of money and its correlation to status is not a recent Western invention. All the cultures of the world have some way of representing status, whether that means having the most Cowry shells, the biggest house, or the greatest number of wives. In recent years the cultural values of the world have shifted from what had evolved locally to a global standard modeled after the United States where wealth reins kings.

Given the current rates of growth in the Chinese economy, the 1.3 billion residents will be as rich as the United States by 2031. They are headed the way of Japan where between 1973 and 2001 there was a fourfold increase in real income, but absolutely no change in personal satisfaction. The United States is a part of the developed or industrialized world, which consists of about 57 countries with a combined population of about 1 billion, less than one sixth of the world’s population. In contrast, approximately 5.1 billion people live in the developing world, which includes 125 low and middle-income countries where the vast majority of people have less access to not only consumer goods, but basic necessities and services that people in high-income countries enjoy. This is rapidly changing and now economic growth has become a goal upon itself in many areas where only 20 years ago subsistence level farming was the main economy.

Scientific explanations for the origins of human relationships say nothing about whether they are the “only” possibility. Even though humans are programmed towards a certain behavioral traits they also have free will and self-awareness, the same awareness that draws attention to the neighbors new Mercedes. While it is not possible to change biological nature, it is possible to create a cultural shift around what defines status. The world cannot support a 21^st century where billions transition from abject poverty into personal cars and public malls. Luckily the move for social evolution is already here.

In Europe, economic growth is much focused on increasing wages and the quality of social system over pure profits. The concept of volunteering with third-world communities to develop local sustainability and long-term planning is growing. The world’s richest two men have turned their fortunes over to a fund, setting an example that is waiting for the third, fourth and fifth to join. We must talk about these emerging leaders as trend-setters rather than exceptions to be applauded.

Perhaps our situation is best described through another product of natural selection, the male peacock, which attracts mates with its luxuriant and colorful tail. The positive correlation between tail size and mating success has resulted in males with disturbingly large tails being favored and reproducing at faster rates than males with smaller tails. Over time this weeds the smaller tailed males from the gene pool, leaving only the well-endowed. However, the males with the biggest tails are now so encumbered by their “asset” that they can no longer escape predators, even though they get the most attention.

Let’s not be peacocks.

-Travis Taylor

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