Posted by Life is short, so love your life. Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you pray, forgive. Before you hurt, feel. Before you hate, love. Before you quit, try. Before you die, live
My previous post described the unhappy state of happiness in America. In this post I would like to disaggregate a bit and investigate which groups in America are happier than others. The title of a Blog from the Brookings Institute tells the story in a nutshell: “Unhappiness in America: Desperation in white towns, resilience and diversity in the cities.” Let’s start with the “happier” part of the story.
Does being richer mean being happier? This turns out to be more complicated than one would have thought. According to a report in the journal Emotion, individuals with higher socio-economic status experience higher levels of pride, contentment and amusement, but also experience lower levels of compassion, love and awe. The authors argue that the first three tend to be self-oriented, while the latter three tend to be other-oriented. Upper income individuals tend to be satisfied with their achievements and their status, while lower income individuals have deeper and broader relationships with others.
Does being a member of a poor minority community bring greater happiness than being a poor white?
The answer, according to Brookings is unequivocally “yes.” The figure below, which summarizes their findings needs some explanation.
The vertical axis measures the level of optimism (one of the markers of well-being) of a member of a poor minority group compared to poor whites. Poor African-Americans are almost three times as optimistic as poor whites; poor Hispanics are 20% more optimistic than poor whites. There are also substantial differences in stress (an indicator of ill-being). Poor whites are 9% more likely to have experienced stress the day before the poll than middle-class whites. On the other hand, poor blacks are 47% less likely than poor whites to report experiencing stress the day before.
What’s going on here? The Brookings study argues that poor whites no longer expect to get ahead in society, while other poor minorities have seen progress and expect that to continue. Although black Americans have worse health indicators than white Americans on average their health status has been improving. Blacks (and minority groups in general) are better off than whites in terms of mental health. Depression, anxiety, and suicide are all more common among whites than blacks. (More on this in a later post).
While I haven’t found data that separates economic mobility by race, the following graph showing economic mobility for Americans as a whole is startling. A study of age cohorts born between 1940 and 1985 shows that the percentage of children who were earning more than their parents has declined dramatically. In 1940 more than ninety percent of adults earned more than their parents; by 1985 that proportion had declined to around 50%. The authors argue that the reason for these results is a sharp increase in economic inequality that trumps strong economic growth over the period.
The effect of religion. According to a Pew Foundation study nearly eight-in-ten African-Americans (79%) say religion is very important in their lives, compared with 56% among the U.S. adult population overall. In the U.S. 36% of people who are actively involved in their religion report themselves to be very happy compared to 25% of the people who aren’t involved in religious activities, so a strong faith is clearly one reason poor blacks are relatively happier than poor whites.
Conclusions. What are we to make of this? First for many people, especially lower and even middle class whites, the American Dream is coming to an end. Second, the admittedly slow pace of increasing income and better health for minorities has led to increasing levels of happiness. Third, one cause of a better life is the depth and breadth of their social networks. These networks are eroding among whites but remain strong among minorities. One of the most important of these networks for black Americans is their faith community and the strength they get from reliance on God.
The next post will look at the slow-motion train-wreck that is bringing despair to the white working class, especially those living in rural areas.