February 8th, 2013
Regarding the comfort of my train ride to Mytkyina, ‘Ordinary
Class’ may have been a bit unnecessary. Ten dollars more could have purchased a
comfortable, reclining, cushioned seat. For twenty more I could have had my own
bunk bed in a four person sleeper cabin. Instead I rode 30 hours in that
rickety, slow moving, swaying, train on a wooden bench. I slept upright. Two
teenage boys lay perpendicular to the walkway, spooning in the foot-space
between my bench and the one across. It was awful.
I didn't do it because I'm a masochist. I didn't do it to
rub elbows with the locals as I was the only Westerner on the entire train in
any class. I did it to better know the conditions that affect happiness. Money
does correlate to happiness; up to a point. Several studies demonstrate the
"decreasing marginal utility" of money with respect to life
satisfaction. Basically, up to a certain point and starting from zero, each
additional dollar earned correlates to, on average, a measurable rise in
reported happiness. This correlation diminishes with every dollar earned,
eventually evaporating completely.
Speaking broadly about the US, after earnings reach $75,000
per year, money ceases to have much, if any, correlation with happiness. Put
another way, from the perspective of subjective well being, one CANNOT earn
more than $75,000 a year. I think that's a shockingly low number. As tough as
it is for me to imagine, on average, once a person earns $75,000 a year money,
in-and-of-itself, ceases to add happiness to life. Although meaningful work is
highly correlated with happiness, the ego’s habit of deluding us must be
acknowledged. Are we pursing more work for the money or because we find it
intrinsically meaningful? It’s a tough, but very important question to answer
in life, especially if you’re lucky enough to have options.
If ones goal is happiness in life, wouldn't it be logical to
pursue happiness directly, and ignore the income component once it is maxed out?
Forming good relationships, cultivating qualities such as forgiveness and
gratitude, these are the kinds of things are highly correlated to life
satisfaction; these are the things that have real value in life.
But, I digress. What happiness, or lack thereof did I
observe on the train? Well, comfort does buy happiness. I could observe this
simply by looking within. I was very uncomfortable and wanted to be free of
such discomfort. On the whole, my fellow passengers appeared to be a happy lot.
However, observing closely, I did noticed a preponderance of forlorn faces.
Was this mere statistical noise, or was it part of something
real? Can suffering be detected by simply looking at the faces of the uncomfortable?
I think so. The train ride was a transient situation to be sure; particularly
for the fortunate people of the world such as myself. However life, especially
in the developing world, is full of ardor. Things are considerably less
comfortable. Life is, quite literally, harder. As a traveler, you learn to
deal with it. But over a lifetime, how much would it chip away at our happiness?
Minimal levels of comfort are easy to attain. Learning to deal with moderate discomfort
only lowers the bar to such attainment. However much comfort is correlated to
happiness, I'm glad to know the
situation better, and I'm grateful for my lucky lot in life.
Using the evidence to live a happy life: