1) Dan Gilbert, Why are we happy?
2) Barry Scwartz, On the Paradox of Choice
On almost the same topic, some ideas are repeated. It is about what makes people satisfied or more precisely why satisfaction isn't good enough anymore. Expectations of people are way overblown and that is what creates discontent. Freedom of choice, indeed, is another reason for feeling bad. I do agree and their argument reminds me of Lars von Trier's Manderlay
Whoever is free bears the yoke of responsibility and not everyone wants that burden. Same is with bigger variety when buying or having more options. We choose one but feel sorry for the ones missed. "Missing opportunity" gets more and more depressing as there are more opportunities.
Schwartz argues that some places people are unhappy because of too many choices other places because too little. True. But then was very disappointing with the end of the lecture:
"Income redistribution will make everyone better off". Who is going to decide that? There was one recent such redistribution, when GM was bailed out. Who is getting the redistributed money and why? Can anyone impose on people to lower their expectations?
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