The good life : aspiration, dignity, and the anthropology of wellbeing

Recent research has begun to distinguish two aspects of subjective well-being. Emotional well-being refers to the emotional quality of an individual's everyday experience—the frequency and intensity of experiences of joy, stress, sadness, anger, and affection that make one's life pleasant or unpleasant. Life evaluation refers to the thoughts that people have about their life when they think about it. We raise the question of whether money buys happiness, separately for these two aspects of well-being. We report an analysis of more than 450,000 responses to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, a daily survey of 1,000 US residents conducted by the Gallup Organization. We find that emotional well-being (measured by questions about emotional experiences yesterday) and life evaluation (measured by Cantril's Self-Anchoring Scale) have different correlates. Income and education are more closely related to life evaluation, but health, care giving, loneliness, and smoking are relatively stronger predictors of daily emotions. When plotted against log income, life evaluation rises steadily. Emotional well-being also rises with log income, but there is no further progress beyond an annual income of ~$75,000. Low income exacerbates the emotional pain associated with such misfortunes as divorce, ill health, and being alone. We conclude that high income buys life satisfaction but not happiness, and that low income is associated both with low life evaluation and low emotional well-being.

Providing abundance is humanity’s grandest challenge—this is a book about how we rise to meet it.

We will soon be able to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. This bold, contrarian view, backed up by exhaustive research, introduces our near-term future, where exponentially growing technologies and three other powerful forces are conspiring to better the lives of billions. An antidote to pessimism by tech entrepreneur turned philanthropist, Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler.

Since the dawn of humanity, a privileged few have lived in stark contrast to the hardscrabble majority. Conventional wisdom says this gap cannot be closed. But it is closing—fast. The authors document how four forces—exponential technologies, the DIY innovator, the Technophilanthropist, and the Rising Billion—are conspiring to solve our biggest problems. Abundance establishes hard targets for change and lays out a strategic roadmap for governments, industry and entrepreneurs, giving us plenty of reason for optimism.

Examining human need by category—water, food, energy, healthcare, education, freedom—Diamandis and Kotler introduce dozens of innovators making great strides in each area: Larry Page, Steven Hawking, Dean Kamen, Daniel Kahneman, Elon Musk, Bill Joy, Stewart Brand, Jeff Skoll, Ray Kurzweil, Ratan Tata, Craig Venter, among many, many others.

What Could Middle-class German Supermarket Shoppers Buying Eggs And Impoverished Coffee Farmers In Guatemala Possibly Have In Common? Both Groups Use The Market In Pursuit Of The Good Life. But What Exactly Is The Good Life? How Do We Define Wellbeing Beyond Material Standards Of Living? While We All May Want To Live The Good Life, We Differ Widely On Just What That Entails. In The Good Life, Edward Fischer Examines Wellbeing In Very Different Cultural Contexts To Uncover Shared Notions Of The Good Life And How Best To Achieve It. With Fascinating On-the-ground Narratives Of Germans' Choices Regarding The Purchase Of Eggs And Cars, And Guatemalans' Trade In Coffee And Cocaine, Fischer Presents A Richly Layered Understanding Of How Aspiration, Opportunity, Dignity, And Purpose Comprise The Good Life. Introduction : The Good Life : Values, Markets, And Wellbeing -- Values And Prices : The Case Of German Eggs -- Word, Deed, And Preferences -- Moral Provenance And Larger Purposes -- Solidarity, Dignity, And Opportunity -- Provenance And Values : The Case Of Guatemalan Coffee -- Agency, Opportunity, And Frustrated Freedoms -- Experiments In Fairness And Dignity -- Narco-trafficking And Violence -- Conclusion : The Good Life And Positive Anthropology. Edward F. Fischer. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Text In English. Imagine 6.8 billion people with clean water, nutritious food, affordable housing, personalized education, top-tier medical care, and non-polluting and ubiquitous energy. Since the dawn of humanity there has always been a privileged, prosperous few living in stark contrast to the majority struggling with disease, starvation and poverty. At first glance it seems that we'll never close this gap. With wealth now concentrated in the upper two percent of society - and serious concerns about population size, global warming, energy shortages, water shortages, food shortages, material shortages ... this list goes on - alarmists are having a field day. And an impact. For the first time in a long time, parents are predicting a worse life for their children than their own. But none of this is accurate. We are now entering a period of radical transformation in which, because of the exponential growth rate of technology we will soon have the ability to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman and child on the planet. Making this happen is humanity's grandest challenge - this is a book about how we can meet it 4e de couv.: What could middle-class German supermarket shoppers buying eggs and impoverished coffee farmers in Guatemala possibly have in common? Both groups use the market in pursuit of the "good life." But what exactly is the good life? How do we define wellbeing beyond material standards of living? While we all may want to live the good life, we differ widely on just what that entails. In The Good Life, Edward Fischer examines wellbeing in very different cultural contexts to uncover shared notions of the good life and how best to achieve it. With fascinating on-the-ground narratives of Germans' choices regarding the purchase of eggs and cars, and Guatemalans' trade in coffee and cocaine, Fischer presents a richly layered understanding of how aspiration, opportunity, dignity, and purpose comprise the good life