in reply to Brad's
>>But--from the perspective of any previous millennium--we do live on
>>Big Rock Candy Mountain...
>
>But does it feel that way? There's no evidence that increases in
>wealth, beyond a certain minimum, make people happier (or lead them
>to report themselves as being happier). There's no satisfaction in
>satisfaction, as Freud put it.
I'm not so sure. Doesn't this sound a bit like the argument that people are better off poor but happy than wealthy and troubled?
There is an alternative explanation I think, if I can lean on some 'antiquated' Marxist categories.
'Standard of living', approximating to wealth in use values, has increased (albeit patchily).
But in tandem to that social standing, approximating to the alienation of the social product diminishes.
In other words the working class gets a greater mass of goods, but a smaller proportion of what is produced.
The effect is that one's own productivity creates an alien power over you, capital.
We have more things but less control over our lives. We are less happy.
But unhappy with a greater expectations is a more positive state than happy with none.
-- James Heartfield