Comment on Andreou

Abstract

This comment takes issue with the opposition that Andreou draws between the “exalted” and the “worldly” view. It argues instead for a distinction between “miswanting” and “competitive consumption” as rival explanations for the failure of economic growth to increase average levels of subjectively reported happiness in developed nations. It ends with a caution against over-reliance upon happiness research as an argument for environmentally-motivated constraints on growth.

Notes

1. The key authors in this tradition are Packard (1957), Galbraith (1958) and, more recently, Lasn (2000).

2. The key authors here are Hirsch (1976); Veblen (1973).

3. See Veblen, 1973, p. 78. See also Heath, 2008.

4. Pope John Paul II (1991). See also Kassner (2002).

5. As I have argued, in Heath and Potter (2001).

6. An observation first made by Frank (1997).