There was a recent press release by the UM News Service entitled “Why money doesn’t buy happiness”. This summarizes a study published in a recent issue of Science. Here’s a few comments from the author:
Citing evidence from a nationwide survey of a representative sample of people they conducted recently, they noted that people with greater income tend to devote relatively more time to work, compulsory non-work activities (such as shopping and childcare) and active leisure (such as exercise) and less time to passive leisure (such as watching TV and just relaxing).
“When someone reflects on how more income would change subjective well-being, they are probably tempted to think about spending more time in leisurely pursuits such as watching a large-screen plasma TV or playing golf,” the authors wrote. “But in reality, people should think of spending a lot more time working and commuting and a lot less time engaged in passive leisure and other enjoyable activities.”
BBAs should think about this when thinking about a career. Certainly it’s the case that, all other things being equal, it’s better to have more money than less. The point of the article seems to be that it’s rarely the case that all other things are equal. It’s up to each individual to determine what trade-offs between earning money and other activities are appropriate.
1 comment:
This reminds me of a Dr. Phil episode I saw a while back on success. They had a business-savvy junior executive and his family on the show, and the man was discussing the tradeoffs between work and family life. Part of his reasoning for working around the clock was that he wanted to be "successful". Dr. Phil then brought up how the man was defining “success”, and suggested the junior-exec may be too narrow in his definition. While defining “success” as the amount of money one makes is one interpretation, many others define success in terms of being a successful parent, spouse, friend, volunteer, etc.
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