American Dream Revisited

Campus Report ^ | June 18, 2008 | Bethany Stotts

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American Dream Revisited

by: Bethany Stotts, June 18, 2008

The pursuit of happiness is an American “birthright” and should be at the center of American policy, argues Professor Arthur C. Brooks in his new book, Gross National Happiness. Drawn from international data, studies, and the General Social Survey (GSS), Brooks attempts to show that mainstream family values and morality cause Americans happiness. “I am confident in the findings in this book because multiple data sources told more or less the same story,” writes the Syracuse University professor.

“The lesson in every chapter of this book is that our gross national happiness depends on the way we teach and live our values. These values are faith, family, freedom, nonmaterialism, opportunity, hard work, and charity,” writes Brooks. “These values make up the ecosystem of happiness in America.”

And America is still exceptional in its long-lasting levels of happiness. According to the 2002 International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data, included in the appendix, American happiness ranks 5 out of the 34 countries studied, with 56% of its citizens considering themselves “completely” or “very” happy. Each European country surveyed fell behind American happiness levels, including Great Britain (48%), the Netherlands (36%), and France (35%).

One reason Europeans may be less happy is the lack of personal autonomy reinforced by rigid European employment laws—a program designed to increase job security but resulting in a stale, dissatisfied workforce. “In fact, the evidence suggests that most of Europe is in a vicious cycle of low job satisfaction and rigid labor markets,” Brooks writes. “Across Europe, job security is significantly higher than in America: It is hard to lay off workers or even fire people for just cause...it has in fact led to a real scarcity of employment.”

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The Founders’ definition of “happiness” came from Sir William Blackstone’s 1765 biblically based definition: “[God] has so intimately connected, so inseparably interwoven the laws of eternal justice with the happiness of each individual, that the latter cannot be attained but by observing the former; and, if the former be punctually obeyed, it can not but induce the latter.”

Happiness and eternal justice (obedience to God’s law in creation) are inseparable. The founders of our nation nderstood “happy” to mean “blessed.” They knew that true happiness depends on one’s obedience to God’s commands (check out Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5). God’s commandments are not random demands, they are instructions from the One who made and sustains the universe.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1817601/posts#5

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