Description
Book SynopsisWhy in prosperous market democracies do so many people find themselves unhappy? Robert Lane shows that the main sources of well-being in advanced economies are friendship and a good family life; income has little to do with happiness once a person rises above the poverty level.
Trade Review"The day is near when people will discover the Sisyphusian nature of the pursuit of material goods as a source of lasting contentment and meaning. Professor Lane's well-written and well-documented book will be the text of the new recognition that all who are out of poverty must formulate other goals in life than the amassment of objects during the day and their consumption at night." Amitai Etzioni, author of The New Golden Rule "A book of great importance for our time. Lane asks whether our most treasured institutions - market economies and democratic political systems - are good for subjective well-being. He approaches this question with a breadth of knowledge and scholarship that is difficult to match." David O. Sears, University of California, Los Angeles
