Don't worry, be happy

The Celtic Tiger has finally let go; we can once again be happy in our misery

TIMES ARE tough. There’s no escaping it. Glumness abounds on every front page, the jobless queues are growing, George Lee can hardly contain himself with I-told-you-so glee. Despite this, are we as a nation more or less happy now that the Celtic Tiger has let rip with her claws than we were when she was letting us rub her fluffy belly?

We certainly gave the impression that we were happy during the boom times. Ireland consistently topped global quality of life surveys. Our great little country was held up as a beacon of hope for other small nations with grim pasts of their own.

Indeed, the recently published results of the latest Slán study – which polled 10,000 people throughout Ireland in 2007 – show the majority reporting reasonably high levels of positive mental health and satisfaction with life. But all was not exactly rosy. The report shows that people with lower incomes, those who were not in employment and those who had lower levels of social support were markedly less content.

Much has changed and a lot of money has gone down the drain since 2007. The numbers of those in the second, less-contented, category has swelled. Consequently, it’d probably be pretty safe to assume that were a similar survey taken today, the results would paint a far darker picture. Wouldn’t it?

Surprisingly, this is not the received wisdom of experts in the field of human watching.

Gerard O’Neill, who has studied countless reams of intensive market research data as chairman of Amárach Consulting, sees happiness as fairly slump-neutral. He has noted that the recession is a psychological downturn as well as an economic one. “If you look at the speed and scale of the contraction in things like retail spending, it’s out of all proportion to any loss of income rising from increased unemployment.” In other words, people are just plain scared.

However, he says his experience would suggest the population as a whole is not necessarily any less happy than before the slump.

“What we tend to find is there is a very significant disconnect between people’s private lives and public perceptions. A lot of people are quite content in their private lives. If you ask people how their life is going, most people say ‘no problems, it’s grand’, but if you ask them how’s the country, they say it’s terrible or gone to rack and ruin.”

O’Neill refers to the Easterlin Paradox, an economic theory postulated by Richard Easterlin in 1974 which finds people’s self-reported levels of happiness at a national level do not necessarily increase with wealth once their basic necessities are fulfilled. In poorer countries, people’s happiness rose sharply as their needs were met. But in richer nations, a certain plateau was reached, beyond which the influence of money was nominal at best.

However, more recent studies show people are increasingly linking the amount of money they have with their sense of wellbeing. A Gallup survey published last year clearly shows reported happiness levels are greatest in countries with the highest GDP. In the US, 90 per cent of people earning over $250,000 a year told Gallup they were “very happy”, compared with just 42 per cent of those who earned under $30,000.

So does this mean money actually does make you happy? “I think rising assets just reduce the sources of misery,” O’Neill says. “It just doesn’t guarantee happiness as such.”

Dr Antony Montgomery, an occupational psychologist at University College Cork, puts a positive spin on the recession, theorising that it gives people an opportunity to become more dependent on each other. “Dependency is a human desire we all have. But we’ve been a little bit brainwashed into believing depending on people is wrong, even if it’s actually the glue that keeps us together,” he says. Montgomery argues that by having less money, we are given the excuse to depend on family or friends more for support, thus binding us closer to one another.

In a recession, he says, you could argue that people are happier, because grumbling about the economy gives people the opportunity to share their woes. He says hard times increase the anxieties that everyone experiences but rarely acknowledges. “In times of recession, it’s like people relax and realise that it’s okay to be negative now, it’s okay to be anxious. Being given permission to be more dependent or anxious in itself makes people happy.”

Montgomery offers a glimpse of hope for those who’ve lost their jobs. “While they mightn’t feel it initially, maybe it’s an opportunity for them to ask themselves are they doing what they really want to do.”

Andrew Black is, in addition to being a Buddhist, a world-class poker player who has seen millions won and lost at the tables from Dublin to Las Vegas. So he knows a thing or two about the vagaries of life. Ever the pragmatist, he sees the recession as a chance for many people to get off the treadmill and discover a new freedom.

“I think the recession happening has opened many people’s eyes to the fact that while money can be a cushion, it can also be a hindrance,” he says. “Money can bring too much choice. It’s like if you go into a supermarket and you only have €4 for your dinner. Your life is much simplified when you know you can only have the bread and potatoes.”

Black suggests the downturn will be easier to deal with if you try to see it as giving you space and time to take stock, sort out what’s really important to you and cut out the frivolities of life. “It’s interesting that all the major spiritual leaders urged people to move towards a simpler life. Why do you think that is?”

Brian Howard of the Mental Health Alliance agrees the stresses of life can be easier to deal with when you have a few bob in your pocket. But being broke, or feeling broke, needn’t always lead to despair or despondency. “Most of the best things you can do for your mental wellbeing, like going for a walk or playing sports or taking part in community activities, cost nothing at all.”

We’ll leave the last word to the real expert, the fountain of all knowledge: the anonymous taxi driver. We canvassed a few for this article. One chap, who declined to be named, fell ponderously silent for a whole 30 seconds when asked if money makes you happy. “Were we happier during the Celtic Tiger?” he mused. “Or were we just too busy to notice that we weren’t happy at all?”