Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Health, wealth, and happiness?
The New York Times' Freakonomics blog reports on a new study by Princeton professor, Angus Deaton. His recently published paper, "Income, Aging, Health and Wellbeing Around the World: Evidence from the Gallup World Poll," analyzes the results of a 2006 poll in which participants from 132 countries were asked identical questions on topics including standard of living, personal health, and their country's healthcare system. Deaton compared the data on "health and life satisfaction" (a.k.a. "happiness") to national income, age, and life expectancy.
Surprisingly (or not), Deaton's findings on life satisfaction directly contradict the idea that countries with high adult mortality rates (such as African nations ravaged by AIDS) would have correspondingly low rankings in life and health satisfaction. According to the blog, Deaton writes,
HIV prevalence in Africa has little effect on Africans' life or health satisfaction; the fraction of Kenyans who are satisfied with their personal health is the same as the fraction of Britons and higher than the fraction of Americans.
Turns out that money can't buy you love, nor can it buy you health, or life satisfaction.