In American society, it’s the wealthy and dignified lifestyle that catches each eye. We are shown through persistent social media postings and told by countless numbers of celebrity icons that the more successful we are, the happier we’ll be. Basically, the United States has been plagued by an obsession with the belief that the rush of fame, beauty, and recognition, are the key to continuing happiness. Materialistic visions are sweeping America off its feet, enchanting the land with wondrous dreams of dazzling accessories and endless masses of money. These philosophies of prosperous ambition and refined living may all sparkle with the luster of cultivation, but almost all the time fail to make the difference it promises. According to Tim Kasser, a professor of psychology at Knox College, we are told in our society that the way to be an exceptional and adequate person is to make huge sums of money (2011).
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However, when comparing that amount of proceeds to the reasoning of more money equaling more happiness, the results were antagonistic. Sets of multiple surveys have proven that Americans are, in fact, NOT any happier than they were before, indicating that the level of prosperity has not changed since the start of the study. A factor contributing to the results, a phenomenon known as the Hedonics Treadmill, is a theory that assembles an explanation for the failure of the materialistic philosophy. First introduced by Jean Jacques Rousseau (2014), the Hedonic Treadmill states that whatever level of wealth or material goods a person has, they’ll eventually adapt to it and always want more (2011). This strongly hints towards an increasingly high level of dissatisfaction, which can be assumed to contribute to grief’s
However, when comparing that amount of proceeds to the reasoning of more money equaling more happiness, the results were antagonistic. Sets of multiple surveys have proven that Americans are, in fact, NOT any happier than they were before, indicating that the level of prosperity has not changed since the start of the study. A factor contributing to the results, a phenomenon known as the Hedonics Treadmill, is a theory that assembles an explanation for the failure of the materialistic philosophy. First introduced by Jean Jacques Rousseau (2014), the Hedonic Treadmill states that whatever level of wealth or material goods a person has, they’ll eventually adapt to it and always want more (2011). This strongly hints towards an increasingly high level of dissatisfaction, which can be assumed to contribute to grief’s