The Pursuit of Happy Economies
Hearing recent news about how the European economy is faltering and the US economy has had another month of slow job growth, I was reminded of some words from one of the dozens of articles I have read giving advice for people seeking jobs. It said that having a job can be one of the most fulfilling things a person does. Having a job offers us confidence and a sense of accomplishment. I’ve felt fulfilled from some of the handiwork I have done for neighbors and relatives, but none of the minimum wage jobs open to young people like me seem very fulfilling.
Whenever I hear another repetitive news story grimly explaining how the economy didn’t grow as much as expected last month I’m left with conflicting feelings. Part of me feels despondent about my future or current job-searching situation, but another part of me wonders why the economy has to grow so much. Everyone talks about the great recession like it’s still going on, but when is the last time you heard the economy actually shrank? One of the causes of most economic crashes is overspending and over borrowing, so if the economy goes into a re-balancing phase afterward, then why is it such a big deal that isn’t growing fast? The balancing of economic activity makes up for the fact that there was too much speculation. Right now, the total economic activity in the US (GDP) is at the highest it’s ever been, but you’d never guess from the morose news reports week after week. You’d also never guess that our unemployment rate has been declining—just look at this graph.
One of the reasons there is a high unemployment rate is that the kinds of jobs are changing. Living in a wealthy industrialized nation we perceive a lot of jobs to be necessities, but when you take a step outside of the standards for analyzing economics you have to wonder how economies so massive can even exist. There are countless people employed in the entertainment industry, online marketing, or in the production of luxury goods like fancy sports cars and high-end laptops. I think one of the problems with a modern economy is that jobs necessary for lives (health care, farming, home construction, etc.) continually make up a smaller and smaller portion of the total number of jobs. The truth is that most of our jobs don’t matter in the great scheme of life! It seems ridiculous when we care so much that 8.3% of America is unemployed when almost all of America’s jobs are frivolities.
But somehow, even when I see the ridiculous demands for constant growth and no unemployment, I feel the pain of a bad economy. I feel like I’ve missed part of my right of passage into adulthood by never gaining the responsibility and benefits of a consistent job. I see families who struggle to stay afloat. I can begin to understand why there is this obsession with infinite growth. It is a shame that the media is miserable when our unemployment rate is 8.3%, when there are third world countries where people strive to produce their own food and can’t even make it. I’m not saying we shouldn’t care about the health of our economy—there are thousands of impoverished families that face life-changing impacts from bad economies. I think we, as a country, as a segment of the industrialized world, need to learn a lesson about how we appraise economies. We should always strive for the perfection of man (or the pursuit of happiness), but to ask for the perfect economy might be going a little far. Focus on what’s positive!