Does Consumerism Lead to Happiness?

Today, the concept of happiness has assumed new importance and relevance as the United Nations World Happiness Report continues to publish annual rankings of countries according to the quantified happiness levels of their citizenry (Chaudhary 2023). To determine the facts about this Report and its broad implications, the purpose of this paper is to develop informed and timely answers to the questions, Will consumerism lead to happiness? and Is supply and demand the main problem of consumerism? Although the concept of happiness is massively subjective and the answers to these questions will invariably depend on who is being asked, it is possible to answer these questions based on the objective criteria that is used to formulate the World Happiness Report and by operationalizing the terms happiness, consumerism and supply and demand, an enterprise that represents the purpose of this paper. Following this analysis, the paper provides a summary of what was found in the relevant literature to develop an informed answer to these guiding research questions.

Review and Analysis

The Global Happiness Report is published annually by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network and ranks countries based on factors such as life expectancy, social support, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, perceptions of corruption, and other variables. The top countries on the Report tend to have high life expectancy, income, social support, freedom, and trust in government. Conversely, the lowest ranking countries often have economic and political instability, conflict, poor healthcare, and other challenges impacting individuals quality of life.

In order to better gauge the quantified assessments of the largely qualitative construct of happiness, the relevant terms must first be operationalized. For this purpose, the following representative definitions are provided:

Happiness:

The most common definitions of happiness (aside from the state of being happy) include factors such as contentment and satisfaction with ones station and circumstances in life. In this regard, one authority advises that, For most, the term happiness is interchangeable with subjective well-being, which is typically measured by asking people about how satisfied they feel with their lives, how much positive and negative emotion they tend to feel and their sense of meaning and purpose (What is Happiness? 2023, p. 2).

Consumerism:

A useful definition of this term is: Consumerism is the idea that increasing the consumption of goods and services purchased in the market is always a desirable goal, and that a person's...…one accumulates. While some may seem perpetually cheerful, other people may find happiness in unexpected moments or circumstances. Finally, the research showed that the purposes of this analysis, consumerism in and of itself does not contribute to individual happiness levels in any meaningful fashion beyond protecting people from their own foolish impulses. This finding means that the answer to the question, Will consumerism lead to happiness? is sometimes it depends and the answer to the question, Is supply and demand the main problem of consumerism? is negative since it refers to economic forces and trends.

Works Cited

Allen, Treb, and Costas Arkolakis. Economic Activity across Space: A Supply and Demand Approach. Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 37, no. 2, Apr. 2023, pp. 328.

Chaudhary, Shatdal. World Happiness Report. Journal of Universal College of Medical Sciences, vol. 11, no. 1, Jan. 2023, p. 1.

Hayes, Adam, Clarke, Caitlin and Schmitt, Kirsten R. Consumerism Explained: Definition, Economic Impact, Pros & Cons. Investopedia. Available: https://www.investopedia. com/terms/c/consumerism.asp.

Hemais, Marcus Wilcox, and Las Rodrigues. Is Consumerism Only What Philip Kotler Says It Is? A Decolonial Analysis on Failures, Hierarchies, and Exclusions. Journal of Marketing Management, vol. 39, no. 9/10, Aug. 2023, pp. 75681.

What is Happiness? Greater Good Magazine,…