The image of Australians as a group of flat-screen-TV-loving materialists is grossly overstated, a public policy lecturer will tell an audience at The Brisbane Institute seminar series tomorrow night (Tuesday, June 17).
University of Queensland lecturer Andrew Hindmoor said that an occasionally ‘elitist’ attitude among academics and media commentators offered a distorted view of Australian consumers.
In his seminar, titled “The Economics of Happiness”, Dr Hindmoor will argue that many commentators tie together economic growth and consumerism too tightly when looking at drivers of happiness.
“Consumerism is becoming a bit like terrorism – it’s what ‘other’ people do in the minds of some commentators,” Dr Hindmoor said.
“‘Other’ people are consumers who buy flat-screen TVs and barbecues whereas we (the commentators) just enjoy drinking fine wine.
“There is a view out there that lots of people’s lives are defined by the pursuit of consumer goods, rather than the possession of goods, and I don’t think that a huge number of Australians are like that.
“Most people recognise that being able to buy cars and electronic goods is a source of happiness but it’s not the key source of happiness.
“We know from research that most people derive most of their happiness from their families, relationships, friendships and fulfilling jobs.”
Dr Hindmoor said an explosion in “happiness research” in the past decade had widely promoted the finding that, once people reached a certain level of income, their happiness tended not to grow in line with their income
“I have some reservations with that because GDP is an absolute measure while happiness is really only measured against people’s responses to questions about how happy they are and people’s answers are bound to be relative,” he said.
“So it hardly seems surprising that while income has increased dramatically over time, our overall level of happiness remains stuck somewhere in the middle.
“I don’t think this necessarily tells us anything dramatic about happiness. I suspect it tells us more about the way in which we are trying to measure happiness.”
Dr Hindmoor said he was more interested in how economic growth affected the political process than its affect on individual happiness.
“The fact that everybody can gain during periods of economic growth just make politics and the political process a lot easier.”
Media contact: Carmen Myler, Compass Communications, 02 6679 5614 or 0400 791 148.
