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The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies
Robert E. Lane
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000
WHEN I FIRST BEGAN READING this book, something nagged at me suggesting that I'd heard the message before. Then it struck me that to some extent the book is a retelling of Ecclesiastes. The author of this new telling of old wisdom is Eugene Meyer, professor emeritus of political science at Yale University. Meyer questions whether our questing for material progress and if our "sacred" institutions-market economics and democratic political systems-are conducive to our subjective well-being and happiness. He suggests that from those issues many social and personal ills flow. In addressing that basic question Lane assembles a variety of studies done over the past 2 or 3 decades that have attempted to measure both economic and subjective well-being and other social phenomena making use of research in fields such as sociology, economics, psychology, biology, and political science. His findings are, to say the least, disquieting and should provide no great comfort to conservative or liberal alike. His findings, too, might prompt social workers to think more deeply about the complex issues involved in bettering the human condition and of the intrinsic importance of family, community, and relationships.
In reviewing this book, I'd first like to provide an overview of its contents, its findings, a critique of the author's conclusions, the findings' significance to those in the helping professions, and then generally critique the usefulness of the book and its clarity. Lane begins with a definition of the issue the book addresses: "Amidst the satisfaction people feel with their material progress, there is a spirit of unhappiness and depression haunting advanced market democracies throughout the world." He then raises the question, "How (do we) account for this combination of unhappiness and depression, interpersonal and institutional distrust, and weakened companionship in advanced market democracies in which people are, with important exceptions, reasonably well off?" And finally, he asserts his tentative conclusion of part of the problem: "If ... income is not the most important direct source of happiness or of life satisfaction, what are the important sources? The first answer is simple and obvious: We get happiness primarily from people; it is their affection or dislike, their good or bad...