Harvested the February 27, 2006 issue of TIME magazine at the MIT gym (as nice as you’d expect given that it cost more than $50 million, but with surprising shortcomings such as the lack of soap in the showers). TIME does a good job covering the happiness news. Some statistics:
- 34 percent of Americans report being “very happy”
- 45 percent of Republican Americans report being “very happy”
- only 30 percent of Democrats report being “very happy”
This could be explained by the fact that our current rulers are Republican. People have been told that we have a democracy and expect to have some input, but in a country of 300 million people none of us is likely to be consulted or to have any way to influence the federal government. When Clinton was in power, Republicans were bitter and angry. Maybe it is W’s existence that rains on Democrats’ parade?
An alternative theory is income-based. People become happier as you stuff their pockets with money, though supposedly the effect becomes quite small once people have enough for a basic lifestyle (far below the current American median income). Typing “median income Republicans versus Democrats” into Google doesn’t yield any conclusive answer.
A theory that gets better support in the psychology literature is faith-based. People who believe in God are happier. People who believe in God supposedly tend to vote Republican.
Finally there is the “fat, dumb, and happy” theory. Republicans don’t notice all the problems that beset us. They fight global warming by turning up the A/C in their monster SUVs.
It is enormously ironic how you imply that Republicans, in this day, are those being naive. I suppose, however, that this might hold water if several factors are ignored. Say, for instance, the Democratic derision of the GWOT, or perhaps the Democratic condoning of the suppression of free speech that is the ongoing Danish cartoon fiasco. In the former case, the Dems have been quite happy ignoring global terrorism. Well, this is until the port debacle exposed the true NIMBY attitude held fast in these isolationists (because problems don’t exist in the world until they’re domestic, of course). In the latter case, the na
On colleges and soap, see Chronicle of Higher Education (http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=xJPvjw4wmKzHg4cpVFwrkqDbdzCHsfwf), February 17, 2006, p. A8:
Yale University has finally agreed to provide liquid-soap dispensers in dormitories, the Associated Press reported. The university replaced its one-ply toilet paper with two-ply paper a decade ago, but it held the line on providing soap of any kind, citing an anticipated cost of more than $100,000 a year. Yale will fill dispensers at three of its 12 dormitories on a trial basis, and if it is not too costly, according to Eric Uscinski, facilities director, dispensers at the other dorms will follow.
Yale’s endowment is the second largest in the United States, with a value last year of more than $15-billion.
Thanks, Ellen. Soap in the dorms isn’t as big a deal to me, since that is a personal issue, but at a public swimming pool I personally would be delighted to pay for the soap of my fellow swimmers. I thought in a lot of states that people were required to take “soap showers” before swimming. I’ve never been to a public swimming pool that didn’t have soap dispensers before this new MIT one.
Junk Charts (http://junkcharts.typepad.com/junk_charts/2006/02/income_party_an.html) also took a gander at this one a little while ago.
Democrats are more fearful people than Republicans, so of course they are less happy.
The whole basis of the Democrat party is based on the message that you, as an individual, are a helpless pawn in the grip of forces larger than yourself. Their message is that the individuals only hope is to hide behind an army of bureaucrats and lawyers. Even then, you will probably die from global warming, a hurricane spawned by Karl Rove’s weather control machine, a heart attack caused by Ronald McDonald, or Dick Cheney will shoot you.
The message from Democrat leaders is “you are a helpless child, you must be protected from the world and yourself. We are smarter than you, give us your money or die”.
Who wouldn’t be depressed with such a sour world view.
The happiness poll was discussed on ABC’s This Week on Feb. 19th. George Will had an interesting theory about Conservatives believing in the pursuit of happiness whereas liberals want/expect it to be delivered to them. Perhaps oversimplified, but I think there’s something to this. If one lives a life where happiness is derived from government’s ability to deliver it, then one will always be miserable.
Ignorance is bliss… Or as is too often demonstrated, it is easier to consume a bunch of rhetorical pablum and spit it up on command than it is to consider each case on its merits and develop workable opinions for them.<br?So, republicans get to be happy, listen to their like-minded commentators and then ditto-head ‘their’ opinions around the office.Liberals have a tough row to hoe because, after getting their drive-time NPR fix, they have to balance a dozen differing points of view and attempt to use some factual information to hold back the mounds of propaganda spewed by their more conservative co-workers.I suppose I can find _some_ happines in that, but ‘very happy’, feh!
Democrats have good reason to feel depressed every time they turn on the radio or TV, or open the newspaper, to learn of the latest thing the bushista junta has done in their apparent crusade to transform what was once a great country into a third-rate banana republic for the benefit of their crony donors. The news should be equally depressing to anyone who loves America and despairs at seeing it raped and pillaged by its rulers, but apparently enough Republicans eagerly buy Karl Rove’s propaganda about how great things are (both at home and in liberated Iraq). Or perhaps the happy Republicans don’t pay attention to the depressing news, but only watch sports and/or read People Magazine. Ignorance is bliss– and also strength.
Yes, there is more to life than politics and the news served up by the liberal media. But a well-informed, thinking person is very likely to be depressed, and with good reason.
I love how Republicans leave out facts (google Clinton terror) and make false claims to support their worldviews.
Speaking of FEAR, what party has been screaming the terrorists are gonna get you if you dont let us do whatever we want? Its not the Democrats…
Fat dumb and stupid is probably a happier way to go throu gh life. Unfortunately, I would rather know the truth instead of living in a world described in the book 1984.
Louis, Confucius said:”If I master the true way in the morning, I would be happy to be dead in the evening”.
Li
Ah, yes, the Republicans….God in one hand, war in the other.
The message from Democrat leaders is “you are a helpless child, you must be protected from the world and yourself.
Ah, as opposed to Commander Codpiece promising to keep people safe from Terrsts.
If one lives a life where happiness is derived from government’s ability to deliver it, then one will always be miserable.
Alternatively, if one lives a life where one’s attempts at happiness are screwed up by dint of, say, having one’s home submerged by a hurricane, then one has a reason to be somewhat pissed off.
Democrats do have a martyrdom complex, but they also feel a stake in doing something about the unhappiness of others. Or, in classical liberal terms, a sense of guilt. They take the misfortune of those worse off than themselves personally, whereas the God-fearing moral Republicans either see that misfortune as a sign of God’s punishment, or as a means of getting into God’s good books. And the corporate Republicans really don’t care, since their windows are tinted.
It helps to read good quality news sites, and Time isn’t it.
The original http://pewresearch.org/social/pack.php?PackID=1 reports that Republicans have been happier than Democrats since 1972. Also that the effect holds even when you correct for income. Also the effect holds when you correct for belief in God. And finally it suggests that it holds when you correct for liberal vs. conservative. So any new theories?
Take that poll in Palo Alto and I think the results would be fliped. The dems here are up in arms about something or the other all the time but are happy as lark that they have something to be up in arms about.
Red state america needs god to be happy about how they are getting the economic sh*t kicked out of them.
I wish on the Oscars broadcast they would show all of the attendees and the vechicles they arrive in. It kills me that a couple of years ago some arrived in a Toyota Prius, yet probably travel on private planes. The irony of it all.
I wish on the Oscars broadcast they would show all of the attendees and the vechicles they arrive in. It kills me that a couple of years ago some arrived in a Toyota Prius, yet probably travel on private planes. The irony of it all.
Kind of simplistic explanation for MIT graduate and “enlitened, sofisticated liberal”. I guess this in itself eplains unhappiness of left.