Wealth and Happiness: The Annual Report
The latest version of the World Happiness Index is out.
This is a report that tracks what I call the European Model of Happiness. This means happiness as a function of material sufficiency and comfort. That model is opposed to Philosophical Happiness (happiness that comes from balance among critical elements of life) and the Asian Model of Happiness (happiness as an internal state of being).
As has long been the case, the report shows that the countries that are wealthiest are also the countries that are happiest. In that sense, money can buy happiness. Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and other prosperous European countries dominate this kind of analysis of happiness.
But the current report dug a bit deeper and uncovered some interesting truths that correlate to other research that we, as a fund focusing specifically on the science of health and happiness, have discovered in the past.
The first is that wealth alone isn’t the fullest measure of societal happiness. Rather, it is the wide distribution of wealth that is key. Countries with large wealth gaps are not happy places. This includes South Africa and other African countries. Also, Russia and Turkey.
And, most interestingly, Latin American countries, while suffering from high wealth gaps, also show high happiness. Why? Family. These are the countries where the philosophical model of happiness shines through in the real world. Academics say humans are happy when they are in the embrace of those they love — it’s that simple. The complex question is why most humans don’t actually live according to those principles.
But in Latin American culture people do live more according to these ideals. Families are physically close and close knit. So happiness is high, even if material wealth is meager.
The tragedy of the pandemic increased our pain and suffering but also increased our empathy and kindness toward each other. People have been seeking to achieve happiness from the beginning of our existence, but our understanding, while deepening, is still cloaked in mystery; we as investors will continue to support those brave entrepreneurs solving that mystery for the betterment of all.
By Managing Partner Mike Edlehart
@mikeedelhart
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