The Fun of Low Bars

We are often exhorted to challenge ourselves – to seek new heights. That is all well and good for some single facet (or handful of facets) of our lives where doing that is actually fun in its own way: some hobby or sport, say, or even something more remunerative such as securities trading. Maybe you’ll one-up Albert with a successful Unified Field Theory. (I doubt it, but give it a shot.) But as a general way of life it has its drawbacks. Happiness sometimes is defined as reality divided by expectations when the quotient is greater than 1. (Since we’re talking about lowering the bar, one might prefer the even simpler reality-minus-expectations with the answer a positive number.) This is because we irrational humans judge success in relative terms. We’re giddy when things go better than expected and upset when they go worse.
 
We all see this every day. For years I was a real estate broker, and customers, especially when unaccompanied by spouse, often were surprisingly (and unsolicitedly) open about their disappointments in life. I remember showing one woman, who drove a $65,000 Mercedes, an $800,000 suburban house. (Both items would cost perhaps 25% more today.) “I can’t believe this is my life,” she said despondently. She was serious. I’m aware that there is more to life than material well-being, and that there are many legitimate reasons why moneyed people nonetheless might be unhappy. Maybe she had them, but I couldn’t help (unnoticed I hope) raising an eyebrow. If her material expectations had been even grander however (e.g. French villas and private jets) maybe the shortfall in that area alone was the disappointment.
 
Self-reported happiness in the US has been declining since the 1950s. Analysts have blamed everything from obesity rates to social media addiction for the trend. At bottom, though, it seems our expectations have changed. After a desperate Depression and a brutal war, those who in the 1950s achieved the dream of a little ranch house with a Chevy in the driveway thought they were in pig heaven – it was more than for which they could have hoped a decade earlier. They were happy days. Compare that to the previous story.
 
If we consider only the material portion of life, how much money would it take today for Americans to be happy by their own reckoning? The numbers vary significantly by generation. According to a survey by the financial services company Empower, the median minimum net worth it would take are as follows:
 
Zoomers:         $487,000
Millennials    $1,700,000
Gen X             $1,200,000
Boomers        $1,000,000
 
Annual salaries would have to be
 
Zoomers:       $128,084
Millennials:   $525,947
Gen X:            $130,344
Boomers:       $124,165
 
Zoomers actually have more realistic goals than Millennials, though it may just be that that they haven’t yet learned how much a dollar is really worth (or, more importantly, isn’t). All of these numbers are high, of course. The median household income according to the Census Bureau is $74,580. (The median household size in 2023 was 2.51; for a single-person-household the median income for a full-time employed worker was $57,200.)
 
A little greater pessimism about goals and expectations might cheer the whole lot of them up in the long run. They can get some surprises on the upside.
 
The power of lowering the expectations bar is evident in the counter-intuitive finding that seniors are the happiest age group. They don’t expect much anymore and so are not much disappointed. I can relate. If I wake up in the morning feeling hale, that is enough. It’s a good day.

 

The Doors – Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me