Prosperity and Happiness

Capitalism can make a society rich and keep it free. Don't ask it to make you happy as well. - the subtitle of "Happiness (and how to measure it)", The Economist, December 23rd, 2006 - January 5th, 2007, p. 13.

more excerpts from the article:

Market capitalism, the engine that runs most of the world economy, seems to be doing its job well.

But is it? Once upon a time, that job was generally agreed to be to make people better off. Nowadays that's not so clear. A number of economists, in search of big problems to solve, and politicians, looking for bold promises to make, think that it ought to be doing something else: making people happy.

To find the market system wanting because it does not bring joy as well as growth is to place too heavy a burden on it. Capitalism can make you well off. And it also leaves you free to be as unhappy as you choose. To ask any more of it would be asking too much.

As a big proponent of capitalism, I wholeheartedly agree. Capitalism alleviates poverty and it does it well. I think it often plays a big role in reinforcing democratic ideals as well. But prosperity and happiness are only correlated so far as an increase in wealth allows you to attain the basic necessities of life*: things like water, food, shelter, education, healthcare, and perhaps employment. After that, I would argue that there isn't a strong correlation between prosperity and happiness. It's your attitude that determines, and your responsibility to determine, the level of joy in your life.

* I'm assuming that all the basic freedoms exist, e.g., freedom of religion, freedom of speech, etc.