Catherine Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199267675
- eISBN:
- 9780191601859
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199267677.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Moral Animals offers a set of anthropological and conceptual foundations for moral theory before turning to the problem of overdemandingness or exigency as it afflicts contemporary ...
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Moral Animals offers a set of anthropological and conceptual foundations for moral theory before turning to the problem of overdemandingness or exigency as it afflicts contemporary egalitarianism. The first half of the book is devoted to a discussion of the bearing of evolutionary theory on ethics and metaethics. After arguing that morality presupposes and compensates for asymmetrical relations of advantage and social power, the author addresses the problem of objectivity, showing in what sense moral judgements are susceptible of confirmation, whether or not moral realism is tenable. In the second half of the book, a number of vexed issues in the theory of social justice, including the problems of affluence and the subordination of women, are examined. Taking the fair division of the co‐operative surplus as the basic problem of distributive justice, the author shows how most co‐operation between human beings fails to allocate goods to individuals and groups according to appropriate standards of need and merit. It is shown that neither the special nature of the first‐person standpoint, nor the importance of non‐moral projects and ambitions, nor the different needs, social understandings, competencies, and emotions of different persons and groups pose a serious challenge to the view that greater global equality in levels of well‐being, as well as greater equality between the sexes, is not only morally desirable but morally required.Less
Moral Animals offers a set of anthropological and conceptual foundations for moral theory before turning to the problem of overdemandingness or exigency as it afflicts contemporary egalitarianism. The first half of the book is devoted to a discussion of the bearing of evolutionary theory on ethics and metaethics. After arguing that morality presupposes and compensates for asymmetrical relations of advantage and social power, the author addresses the problem of objectivity, showing in what sense moral judgements are susceptible of confirmation, whether or not moral realism is tenable. In the second half of the book, a number of vexed issues in the theory of social justice, including the problems of affluence and the subordination of women, are examined. Taking the fair division of the co‐operative surplus as the basic problem of distributive justice, the author shows how most co‐operation between human beings fails to allocate goods to individuals and groups according to appropriate standards of need and merit. It is shown that neither the special nature of the first‐person standpoint, nor the importance of non‐moral projects and ambitions, nor the different needs, social understandings, competencies, and emotions of different persons and groups pose a serious challenge to the view that greater global equality in levels of well‐being, as well as greater equality between the sexes, is not only morally desirable but morally required.
Joel Best
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520267169
- eISBN:
- 9780520948488
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520267169.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Research and Statistics
Every kindergarten soccer player gets a trophy. Many high schools name dozens of seniors as valedictorians — of the same class. Cars sport bumper stickers that read “USA — Number 1.” Prizes ...
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Every kindergarten soccer player gets a trophy. Many high schools name dozens of seniors as valedictorians — of the same class. Cars sport bumper stickers that read “USA — Number 1.” Prizes proliferate in every corner of American society, and excellence is trumpeted with ratings that range from “Academy Award winner!” to “Best Neighborhood Pizza!” In this book, the author shines a bright light on the increasing abundance of status in our society and considers what it all means. He argues that status affluence fosters social worlds and, in the process, helps give meaning to life in a large society.Less
Every kindergarten soccer player gets a trophy. Many high schools name dozens of seniors as valedictorians — of the same class. Cars sport bumper stickers that read “USA — Number 1.” Prizes proliferate in every corner of American society, and excellence is trumpeted with ratings that range from “Academy Award winner!” to “Best Neighborhood Pizza!” In this book, the author shines a bright light on the increasing abundance of status in our society and considers what it all means. He argues that status affluence fosters social worlds and, in the process, helps give meaning to life in a large society.
John Hills
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199276646
- eISBN:
- 9780191601644
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199276641.003.0010
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
The previous chapter suggests that progress has been made in tackling some of the problems outlined earlier in the book. However, the pressures on social spending and on distribution do not stand ...
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The previous chapter suggests that progress has been made in tackling some of the problems outlined earlier in the book. However, the pressures on social spending and on distribution do not stand still, and the constraints and pressures under which policy operates may change in the coming years. This chapter examines whether economic growth eases or worsens the pressures on public finances. It looks at the biggest source of pressure on spending, the ageing population, particularly pressures on spending on pensions. The final section discusses a different kind of constraint, particularly relevant to the strategies pursued since 1997, resulting from the spread of different kinds of means-testing, and asks whether we are reaching the limits to that kind of approach.Less
The previous chapter suggests that progress has been made in tackling some of the problems outlined earlier in the book. However, the pressures on social spending and on distribution do not stand still, and the constraints and pressures under which policy operates may change in the coming years. This chapter examines whether economic growth eases or worsens the pressures on public finances. It looks at the biggest source of pressure on spending, the ageing population, particularly pressures on spending on pensions. The final section discusses a different kind of constraint, particularly relevant to the strategies pursued since 1997, resulting from the spread of different kinds of means-testing, and asks whether we are reaching the limits to that kind of approach.
Raghav Gaiha, Raghbendra Jha, and Vani S Kulkarni (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198099215
- eISBN:
- 9780199084500
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198099215.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Health, Illness, and Medicine
What distinguishes this book from the current literature is its analysis of malnutrition and its meticulous exploration of dietary transition, poverty nutrition traps and links between multiple ...
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What distinguishes this book from the current literature is its analysis of malnutrition and its meticulous exploration of dietary transition, poverty nutrition traps and links between multiple anthropometric failures among children and their vulnerability to infectious diseases. It also explores the abysmal performance of the Public Distribution System and critiques its conversion into a universal food subsidy, investigates the links between affluence, obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and explores the health policy challenge of a ‘double burden of disease’: high communicable disease mortality and a growing burden of NCD mortality. It is puzzling that calorie intake has declined, despite rapid economic growth. An explanation is developed that encompasses the influences of food prices, growing affluence, urbanization, lifestyle changes and less strenuous activity levels. Dietary diversification had a role in lowering calorie intake. New light is shed on poverty nutrition traps that limit the ability of the undernourished to engage in productive and remunerative employment. Child malnutrition has remained stubbornly high. As simultaneous anthropometric failures among children (for example, wasting, stunting, and being underweight) are closely related to infectious diseases, a composite indicator of malnutrition, its variations and links to infectious diseases are analysed. Amelioration of child malnutrition through women’s empowerment is emphasised. As an epidemiological transition is underway—higher deaths from chronic degenerative non-communicable diseases (NCDs) than from communicable diseases—key contributory factors are aging, affluence, and being overweight/obese. Health policy choices are, however, confounded by the irreversibility of growing affluence, lifestyle changes and urbanization. Although controversial, a universal food subsidy was legislated recently as the National Food Security Act (NFSA). The critique rests on huge leakages that will magnify under NFSA and aggravate fiscal deficit without a drastic overhaul of the PDS. A distillation of lessons from policies pursued elsewhere and various initiatives in India is given. The vision that emerges is unavoidably incomplete in some respects, but illuminates successes and failures in designing and implementing policies.Less
What distinguishes this book from the current literature is its analysis of malnutrition and its meticulous exploration of dietary transition, poverty nutrition traps and links between multiple anthropometric failures among children and their vulnerability to infectious diseases. It also explores the abysmal performance of the Public Distribution System and critiques its conversion into a universal food subsidy, investigates the links between affluence, obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and explores the health policy challenge of a ‘double burden of disease’: high communicable disease mortality and a growing burden of NCD mortality. It is puzzling that calorie intake has declined, despite rapid economic growth. An explanation is developed that encompasses the influences of food prices, growing affluence, urbanization, lifestyle changes and less strenuous activity levels. Dietary diversification had a role in lowering calorie intake. New light is shed on poverty nutrition traps that limit the ability of the undernourished to engage in productive and remunerative employment. Child malnutrition has remained stubbornly high. As simultaneous anthropometric failures among children (for example, wasting, stunting, and being underweight) are closely related to infectious diseases, a composite indicator of malnutrition, its variations and links to infectious diseases are analysed. Amelioration of child malnutrition through women’s empowerment is emphasised. As an epidemiological transition is underway—higher deaths from chronic degenerative non-communicable diseases (NCDs) than from communicable diseases—key contributory factors are aging, affluence, and being overweight/obese. Health policy choices are, however, confounded by the irreversibility of growing affluence, lifestyle changes and urbanization. Although controversial, a universal food subsidy was legislated recently as the National Food Security Act (NFSA). The critique rests on huge leakages that will magnify under NFSA and aggravate fiscal deficit without a drastic overhaul of the PDS. A distillation of lessons from policies pursued elsewhere and various initiatives in India is given. The vision that emerges is unavoidably incomplete in some respects, but illuminates successes and failures in designing and implementing policies.
Charles Dorn
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780801452345
- eISBN:
- 9781501712616
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452345.001.0001
- Subject:
- Education, History of Education
Are colleges and universities in a period of unprecedented disruption? Is a bachelor's degree still worth the investment? What, exactly, is higher education good for? This book challenges the ...
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Are colleges and universities in a period of unprecedented disruption? Is a bachelor's degree still worth the investment? What, exactly, is higher education good for? This book challenges the rhetoric of America's so-called crisis in higher education by investigating two centuries of college and university history. From the community college to the elite research university—in states from California to Maine—the book engages a fundamental question confronted by higher education institutions ever since the nation's founding: Do colleges and universities contribute to the common good? Tracking changes in the prevailing social ethos between the late eighteenth and early twenty-first centuries, the book illustrates the ways in which civic-mindedness, practicality, commercialism, and affluence influenced higher education's dedication to the public good. Each ethos, long a part of American history and tradition, came to predominate over the others during one of the four chronological periods examined in the book, informing the character of institutional debates and telling the definitive story of its time. The book demonstrates how two hundred years of political, economic, and social change prompted transformation among colleges and universities—including the establishment of entirely new kinds of institutions—and refashioned higher education in the United States over time in essential and often vibrant ways.Less
Are colleges and universities in a period of unprecedented disruption? Is a bachelor's degree still worth the investment? What, exactly, is higher education good for? This book challenges the rhetoric of America's so-called crisis in higher education by investigating two centuries of college and university history. From the community college to the elite research university—in states from California to Maine—the book engages a fundamental question confronted by higher education institutions ever since the nation's founding: Do colleges and universities contribute to the common good? Tracking changes in the prevailing social ethos between the late eighteenth and early twenty-first centuries, the book illustrates the ways in which civic-mindedness, practicality, commercialism, and affluence influenced higher education's dedication to the public good. Each ethos, long a part of American history and tradition, came to predominate over the others during one of the four chronological periods examined in the book, informing the character of institutional debates and telling the definitive story of its time. The book demonstrates how two hundred years of political, economic, and social change prompted transformation among colleges and universities—including the establishment of entirely new kinds of institutions—and refashioned higher education in the United States over time in essential and often vibrant ways.
Beverley Searle
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861348876
- eISBN:
- 9781447304241
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861348876.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Health, Illness, and Medicine
We are often told that ‘money can't buy happiness’. But if money is not the answer, then what is? This book considers this question by examining empirical data stretching back almost ten years. ...
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We are often told that ‘money can't buy happiness’. But if money is not the answer, then what is? This book considers this question by examining empirical data stretching back almost ten years. Whereas previous concerns of individual well-being have been drawn towards the negative outcomes of life experiences, this book provides a new approach by directly addressing the circumstances under which subjective high well-being is experienced, often with surprising results. Drawing on nine years of panel data, it examines demographic, social, spatial, health, domain satisfaction and socio-economic circumstances in a rich and complex longitudinal study, providing previously unknown information on factors associated with improved and sustained high well-being. It shows that subjective assessments of our circumstances are more important to well-being than our objective conditions and suggests that high well-being may be the key to improvements in people's subjective experience of a wide range of adverse (and other) life events. The book also highlights that high levels of well-being are more likely to be associated with our social relationships and health status than with income or personal status, and that affluence is no guarantee to high subjective well-being and indeed may have negative consequences. The 21st century is seeing the emergence of a positive science, with a new focus on subjective well-being. This research adds new knowledge to the issues and debates that supports the move towards a better understanding of the factors which promote subjective well-being. Such findings will be important to the international academic field.Less
We are often told that ‘money can't buy happiness’. But if money is not the answer, then what is? This book considers this question by examining empirical data stretching back almost ten years. Whereas previous concerns of individual well-being have been drawn towards the negative outcomes of life experiences, this book provides a new approach by directly addressing the circumstances under which subjective high well-being is experienced, often with surprising results. Drawing on nine years of panel data, it examines demographic, social, spatial, health, domain satisfaction and socio-economic circumstances in a rich and complex longitudinal study, providing previously unknown information on factors associated with improved and sustained high well-being. It shows that subjective assessments of our circumstances are more important to well-being than our objective conditions and suggests that high well-being may be the key to improvements in people's subjective experience of a wide range of adverse (and other) life events. The book also highlights that high levels of well-being are more likely to be associated with our social relationships and health status than with income or personal status, and that affluence is no guarantee to high subjective well-being and indeed may have negative consequences. The 21st century is seeing the emergence of a positive science, with a new focus on subjective well-being. This research adds new knowledge to the issues and debates that supports the move towards a better understanding of the factors which promote subjective well-being. Such findings will be important to the international academic field.
Raghav Gaiha, Raghbendra Jha, and Vani S. Kulkarni (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198099215
- eISBN:
- 9780199084500
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198099215.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Health, Illness, and Medicine
The Deaton–Dreze (2009) explanation of a decline in calorie intake despite rapid economic growth in terms of lower calorie ‘requirements’ is incomplete. This chapter fills this gap by taking into ...
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The Deaton–Dreze (2009) explanation of a decline in calorie intake despite rapid economic growth in terms of lower calorie ‘requirements’ is incomplete. This chapter fills this gap by taking into account the influences of food prices, growing affluence, urbanization and life-style changes and less strenuous activity levels. Insights into changing consumer preferences are given.Less
The Deaton–Dreze (2009) explanation of a decline in calorie intake despite rapid economic growth in terms of lower calorie ‘requirements’ is incomplete. This chapter fills this gap by taking into account the influences of food prices, growing affluence, urbanization and life-style changes and less strenuous activity levels. Insights into changing consumer preferences are given.
Amartya Sen
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198289289
- eISBN:
- 9780191596896
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198289286.003.0008
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
If poverty is seen as the deprivation of some minimum fulfilment of elementary capabilities, it becomes easier to understand why it has both an absolute and a relative aspect. These considerations ...
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If poverty is seen as the deprivation of some minimum fulfilment of elementary capabilities, it becomes easier to understand why it has both an absolute and a relative aspect. These considerations are important in dealing with poverty in any country (rich or poor), but are particularly relevant in understanding the nature of poverty in richer countries, which is addressed in this chapter. The persistence of poverty in otherwise affluent countries is an apparently puzzling phenomenon that is beginning to get serious attention in contemporary debates, and it is argued here that the understanding and the remedying of this problem can both be helped by explicit consideration of the relation between deprivations in different spaces, especially between incomes and the capability to lead secure and worthwhile lives.Less
If poverty is seen as the deprivation of some minimum fulfilment of elementary capabilities, it becomes easier to understand why it has both an absolute and a relative aspect. These considerations are important in dealing with poverty in any country (rich or poor), but are particularly relevant in understanding the nature of poverty in richer countries, which is addressed in this chapter. The persistence of poverty in otherwise affluent countries is an apparently puzzling phenomenon that is beginning to get serious attention in contemporary debates, and it is argued here that the understanding and the remedying of this problem can both be helped by explicit consideration of the relation between deprivations in different spaces, especially between incomes and the capability to lead secure and worthwhile lives.
Allen J. Scott
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199549306
- eISBN:
- 9780191701511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199549306.003.0006
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business, Political Economy
This chapter discusses the social and political components of the urban process and how they affect urbanization and life in metropolitan areas. It presents facts and figures on how affluence, ...
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This chapter discusses the social and political components of the urban process and how they affect urbanization and life in metropolitan areas. It presents facts and figures on how affluence, poverty, citizenship, and democracy affect the lifestyle in large metropolitan areas. Because of these, social stratifications and spatial segregation emerge. These patterns of social life are explained in the chapter.Less
This chapter discusses the social and political components of the urban process and how they affect urbanization and life in metropolitan areas. It presents facts and figures on how affluence, poverty, citizenship, and democracy affect the lifestyle in large metropolitan areas. Because of these, social stratifications and spatial segregation emerge. These patterns of social life are explained in the chapter.
Andrew J. Hill
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199571512
- eISBN:
- 9780191595097
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571512.003.0005
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
Body weight affects people's perception of themselves and of others. Although attitudes to obesity are shaped by age, gender, and cultural background, the prevailing climate in the developed world is ...
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Body weight affects people's perception of themselves and of others. Although attitudes to obesity are shaped by age, gender, and cultural background, the prevailing climate in the developed world is ‘anti-fat’. These negative attitudes lead to assumptions about the character and psychological state of obese people and are linked, in turn, to deeply held beliefs about responsibility and blame. This chapter summarizes evidence on the social and psychological circumstance of an increasing section of the population. What does it mean to grow up and live as a fat person in the world today? The following commentary is dominated by research from North America, Europe, and Australasia. Prevalent anti-fat attitudes in these regions contrast with the perceptions, values, and attitudes regarding fatness held by people in regions where poverty is common, food in short supply, and overweight a marker of affluence. Societies in socioeconomic transition are likely to have a mix of values reflecting traditional and new world views. In turn, their social and psychological responses will reflect this complexity.Less
Body weight affects people's perception of themselves and of others. Although attitudes to obesity are shaped by age, gender, and cultural background, the prevailing climate in the developed world is ‘anti-fat’. These negative attitudes lead to assumptions about the character and psychological state of obese people and are linked, in turn, to deeply held beliefs about responsibility and blame. This chapter summarizes evidence on the social and psychological circumstance of an increasing section of the population. What does it mean to grow up and live as a fat person in the world today? The following commentary is dominated by research from North America, Europe, and Australasia. Prevalent anti-fat attitudes in these regions contrast with the perceptions, values, and attitudes regarding fatness held by people in regions where poverty is common, food in short supply, and overweight a marker of affluence. Societies in socioeconomic transition are likely to have a mix of values reflecting traditional and new world views. In turn, their social and psychological responses will reflect this complexity.
Daniel Edmiston
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781447337461
- eISBN:
- 9781447337508
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447337461.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Based on a study exploring lived experiences of poverty and prosperity, this book problematizes dominant policy thinking surrounding the functions and limits of welfare in austerity Britain. It does ...
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Based on a study exploring lived experiences of poverty and prosperity, this book problematizes dominant policy thinking surrounding the functions and limits of welfare in austerity Britain. It does so by critically examining the distributional effects of welfare reform and fiscal recalibration to establish what bearing this has on the changing character and logic of social citizenship in Britain today. Drawing on testimonies of those experiencing relative deprivation and affluence, the book provides an account of the everyday language, ideals and practices that underpin social citizenship and structural inequality. Patterned divergence in the lived realities, political subjectivity and civic engagement of the ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ offers insight into the manifold ways in which welfare austerity secures and maintains institutional legitimacy amidst rising structural inequality. The book presents evidence to suggest that affluent citizens are able to engage with the prevailing terms of social citizenship from within, and in ways that meet their material and discursive ends. By contrast, those at the sharp end of welfare austerity lack the socio-material resources and means of collective identification to engage in sustained political struggle for their rights, identity and recognition. The book reflects on the implications of this for social policy design and delivery as well as the broader health of public deliberation surrounding welfare and inequality in advanced capitalist economies. Less
Based on a study exploring lived experiences of poverty and prosperity, this book problematizes dominant policy thinking surrounding the functions and limits of welfare in austerity Britain. It does so by critically examining the distributional effects of welfare reform and fiscal recalibration to establish what bearing this has on the changing character and logic of social citizenship in Britain today. Drawing on testimonies of those experiencing relative deprivation and affluence, the book provides an account of the everyday language, ideals and practices that underpin social citizenship and structural inequality. Patterned divergence in the lived realities, political subjectivity and civic engagement of the ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ offers insight into the manifold ways in which welfare austerity secures and maintains institutional legitimacy amidst rising structural inequality. The book presents evidence to suggest that affluent citizens are able to engage with the prevailing terms of social citizenship from within, and in ways that meet their material and discursive ends. By contrast, those at the sharp end of welfare austerity lack the socio-material resources and means of collective identification to engage in sustained political struggle for their rights, identity and recognition. The book reflects on the implications of this for social policy design and delivery as well as the broader health of public deliberation surrounding welfare and inequality in advanced capitalist economies.
Avner Offer
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199216628
- eISBN:
- 9780191696015
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199216628.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Economic History
This chapter presents a brief background to and an outline of the book. The book is made up of three parts. The first is conceptual — how to think about affluence, well-being, and self-control. The ...
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This chapter presents a brief background to and an outline of the book. The book is made up of three parts. The first is conceptual — how to think about affluence, well-being, and self-control. The second part moves into the market place: it considers the dynamics of personal choice in the space of commodities. The third is about the rewards and penalties of social relations, primarily of social standing and of heterosexual attachment.Less
This chapter presents a brief background to and an outline of the book. The book is made up of three parts. The first is conceptual — how to think about affluence, well-being, and self-control. The second part moves into the market place: it considers the dynamics of personal choice in the space of commodities. The third is about the rewards and penalties of social relations, primarily of social standing and of heterosexual attachment.
Avner Offer
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199216628
- eISBN:
- 9780191696015
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199216628.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Economic History
This chapter considers how the resources of well-being are conventionally evaluated, and in particular, the impact of economic resources on subjective and social well-being. Affluence has liberated ...
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This chapter considers how the resources of well-being are conventionally evaluated, and in particular, the impact of economic resources on subjective and social well-being. Affluence has liberated most people from the anxieties of subsistence, but much more moderate affluence would have sufficed. Since the Second World War, and especially since the 1970s, self-reported happiness has languished at the same levels, or has even declined. That is the ‘paradox of happiness’. On any measure used, the rise of aggregate money incomes has done little or nothing to improve the sense of well-being. Levels of life expectation have been similar in rich and in middle-income countries, and higher than the United States even in several poor countries.Less
This chapter considers how the resources of well-being are conventionally evaluated, and in particular, the impact of economic resources on subjective and social well-being. Affluence has liberated most people from the anxieties of subsistence, but much more moderate affluence would have sufficed. Since the Second World War, and especially since the 1970s, self-reported happiness has languished at the same levels, or has even declined. That is the ‘paradox of happiness’. On any measure used, the rise of aggregate money incomes has done little or nothing to improve the sense of well-being. Levels of life expectation have been similar in rich and in middle-income countries, and higher than the United States even in several poor countries.
Avner Offer
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199216628
- eISBN:
- 9780191696015
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199216628.003.0015
- Subject:
- History, Economic History
This chapter recapitulates the main points raised in the book, and some general implications and reflections. It presents a summary of findings arranged by chapter. It concludes by repeating a basic ...
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This chapter recapitulates the main points raised in the book, and some general implications and reflections. It presents a summary of findings arranged by chapter. It concludes by repeating a basic insight: affluence is a challenge because choice is fallible. Every choice affects the future, and it is difficult to bring objectives at different time ranges into agreement. To cope with choices, societies have evolved a variety of solutions which provide guidance about the right choices to make. But the flow of novelty under affluence undermines existing commitment conventions. It diverts attention to untested new rewards, and replaces working arrangements with untried ones. The challenge of affluence is coping with novelty. Novelty will continue, at an ever faster pace. Understanding this challenge is necessary to coping with it.Less
This chapter recapitulates the main points raised in the book, and some general implications and reflections. It presents a summary of findings arranged by chapter. It concludes by repeating a basic insight: affluence is a challenge because choice is fallible. Every choice affects the future, and it is difficult to bring objectives at different time ranges into agreement. To cope with choices, societies have evolved a variety of solutions which provide guidance about the right choices to make. But the flow of novelty under affluence undermines existing commitment conventions. It diverts attention to untested new rewards, and replaces working arrangements with untried ones. The challenge of affluence is coping with novelty. Novelty will continue, at an ever faster pace. Understanding this challenge is necessary to coping with it.
Keith Robbins
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205852
- eISBN:
- 9780191676819
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205852.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This is a study of two conflicting trends in nineteenth-century Britain: the promotion of integration and unity, and the commitment to preserve regional diversity. In the nineteenth century, ...
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This is a study of two conflicting trends in nineteenth-century Britain: the promotion of integration and unity, and the commitment to preserve regional diversity. In the nineteenth century, communications between different parts of Britain improved enormously, through the spread of railways, the penny post, newspapers, and increased affluence which enabled more people to take holidays; but this did not necessarily lead to uniformity. The Scots and the Welsh in particular were concerned to retain their own ‘nationality’ and culture, yet in ways which would not lead to political separation. The author examines the various aspects which served to unite or divide the regions: the role of the church and religious beliefs, patterns of eating and drinking, the political system, commercial development, the educational system, language, literature, and music. He concludes that there was a ‘British’ nation which was consolidated through the century. Although not uniform in character, it held together during the supreme test of the First World War, under the political guidance of a Welshman whose first language was not English, and the spiritual guidance of an Archbishop of Canterbury who was a Scot. The relationship between region and state still lies at the heart of today's concerns with local government, devolution, and the North/South divide.Less
This is a study of two conflicting trends in nineteenth-century Britain: the promotion of integration and unity, and the commitment to preserve regional diversity. In the nineteenth century, communications between different parts of Britain improved enormously, through the spread of railways, the penny post, newspapers, and increased affluence which enabled more people to take holidays; but this did not necessarily lead to uniformity. The Scots and the Welsh in particular were concerned to retain their own ‘nationality’ and culture, yet in ways which would not lead to political separation. The author examines the various aspects which served to unite or divide the regions: the role of the church and religious beliefs, patterns of eating and drinking, the political system, commercial development, the educational system, language, literature, and music. He concludes that there was a ‘British’ nation which was consolidated through the century. Although not uniform in character, it held together during the supreme test of the First World War, under the political guidance of a Welshman whose first language was not English, and the spiritual guidance of an Archbishop of Canterbury who was a Scot. The relationship between region and state still lies at the heart of today's concerns with local government, devolution, and the North/South divide.
Eiko Maruko Siniawer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781501725845
- eISBN:
- 9781501725852
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501725845.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Affluence of the Heart explores the many and various ways in which waste—be it of time, stuff, money, possessions, and resources—was thought about in Japan from the immediate aftermath of devastating ...
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Affluence of the Heart explores the many and various ways in which waste—be it of time, stuff, money, possessions, and resources—was thought about in Japan from the immediate aftermath of devastating war to the early twenty-first century.It shows how questions about waste were deeply embedded in the decisions of the everyday and shaped by the central forces of postwar Japanese life from economic growth and mass consumption to material abundance and environmentalism.What endured from the late 1950s onward was a defining element of Japan’s postwar experience: the tension between the desire to achieve and defend the privileges of middle-class lifestyles made possible by affluence, and the discomfort and dissatisfaction with the logics, costs, and consequences of that very prosperity. This tension complicated the persistent search in these decades for what might be called well-being, happiness, or a good life. Affluence of the Heart is a history of how people lived—how they made sense of, gave meaning to, and found value in the acts of the everyday.Less
Affluence of the Heart explores the many and various ways in which waste—be it of time, stuff, money, possessions, and resources—was thought about in Japan from the immediate aftermath of devastating war to the early twenty-first century.It shows how questions about waste were deeply embedded in the decisions of the everyday and shaped by the central forces of postwar Japanese life from economic growth and mass consumption to material abundance and environmentalism.What endured from the late 1950s onward was a defining element of Japan’s postwar experience: the tension between the desire to achieve and defend the privileges of middle-class lifestyles made possible by affluence, and the discomfort and dissatisfaction with the logics, costs, and consequences of that very prosperity. This tension complicated the persistent search in these decades for what might be called well-being, happiness, or a good life. Affluence of the Heart is a history of how people lived—how they made sense of, gave meaning to, and found value in the acts of the everyday.
Cécile Fabre
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199567164
- eISBN:
- 9780191746055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567164.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Chapter 3 claims that violations of subsistence rights (to the material resources we need to lead a minimally decent life) provide victims with a just cause for war, partly because severe mass ...
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Chapter 3 claims that violations of subsistence rights (to the material resources we need to lead a minimally decent life) provide victims with a just cause for war, partly because severe mass poverty undermines collective interests in collective self-determination, but also on the deeper grounds that threats to one's life, of which starvation is one, warrant defensive killing. The claim holds not merely when the rights violations take the form of a wrongful action, but also (more controversially) when they take the form of a wrongful omission. Having thus expanded on the account of just causes for war offered in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 makes a first foray into the issue of legitimate authority, and argues that the right to wage a subsistence war is held not merely by states whose populations suffer unjustly from severe poverty and which are not themselves responsible for that predicament, but also (controversially) by responsible states as well as by victims themselves. The chapter ends with an account of the grounds upon which individual affluent members of affluent communities who are derelict in their duty to the very poor are legitimate targets in war. It argues that some of those members are not protected by the principle of non-combatant immunity.Less
Chapter 3 claims that violations of subsistence rights (to the material resources we need to lead a minimally decent life) provide victims with a just cause for war, partly because severe mass poverty undermines collective interests in collective self-determination, but also on the deeper grounds that threats to one's life, of which starvation is one, warrant defensive killing. The claim holds not merely when the rights violations take the form of a wrongful action, but also (more controversially) when they take the form of a wrongful omission. Having thus expanded on the account of just causes for war offered in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 makes a first foray into the issue of legitimate authority, and argues that the right to wage a subsistence war is held not merely by states whose populations suffer unjustly from severe poverty and which are not themselves responsible for that predicament, but also (controversially) by responsible states as well as by victims themselves. The chapter ends with an account of the grounds upon which individual affluent members of affluent communities who are derelict in their duty to the very poor are legitimate targets in war. It argues that some of those members are not protected by the principle of non-combatant immunity.
Lawrence Stone and Jeanne C. Fawtier Stone
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206071
- eISBN:
- 9780191676963
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206071.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter talks about Professor Hexter's identification of one of the great unanswered problems about English history, one which itself would solve many others — the single question ‘How . . . did ...
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This chapter talks about Professor Hexter's identification of one of the great unanswered problems about English history, one which itself would solve many others — the single question ‘How . . . did they do it?’ This book sets out to test and challenge one of the most common answers given to this question. Since the fifteenth century, it has been generally held among foreigners and natives that the one feature that distinguished English society from that of the rest of Europe has been the easy access of self-made men to power and status — the harmonious intermingling with the landed interest not only of successful public officials and lawyers, but also of men enriched by trade, speculation, and even industrial entrepreneurship. Over the fifty years from 1690 to 1740, there was a significant shift of opinion and a modification of the previous stark clash of values, since this was the time when the monied interest was achieving new heights of affluence and power.Less
This chapter talks about Professor Hexter's identification of one of the great unanswered problems about English history, one which itself would solve many others — the single question ‘How . . . did they do it?’ This book sets out to test and challenge one of the most common answers given to this question. Since the fifteenth century, it has been generally held among foreigners and natives that the one feature that distinguished English society from that of the rest of Europe has been the easy access of self-made men to power and status — the harmonious intermingling with the landed interest not only of successful public officials and lawyers, but also of men enriched by trade, speculation, and even industrial entrepreneurship. Over the fifty years from 1690 to 1740, there was a significant shift of opinion and a modification of the previous stark clash of values, since this was the time when the monied interest was achieving new heights of affluence and power.
Daniel Callahan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199931378
- eISBN:
- 9780199980598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199931378.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
A “minimalist ethic” is one that reduces all ethical questions to John Stuart Mill’s principle that one can live one’s life as one likes so long as no harm is done to others. Thus, it becomes common ...
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A “minimalist ethic” is one that reduces all ethical questions to John Stuart Mill’s principle that one can live one’s life as one likes so long as no harm is done to others. Thus, it becomes common to think of most ethical decisions involving no harm to others as simply “personal choices,” not subject to moral judgment either by oneself or by others. This may work well enough in affluent times when there is money and therapy to allow one to live as an isolated moral agent with no duties to others. It is not a good ethics for hard times, when our community shares economic or social troubles, calling on us to worry about the good of the community, not simply of individuals and which may entail imposing moral obligations on ourselves that require a broad notion of human welfare. John Stuart Mill, if read closely, seems to understand that need. The reduction of ethics to autonomy, to our formal relations with others in a political context, is insufficient for a good society and tears the heart of our ethics as a search for the way best to live one’s life.Less
A “minimalist ethic” is one that reduces all ethical questions to John Stuart Mill’s principle that one can live one’s life as one likes so long as no harm is done to others. Thus, it becomes common to think of most ethical decisions involving no harm to others as simply “personal choices,” not subject to moral judgment either by oneself or by others. This may work well enough in affluent times when there is money and therapy to allow one to live as an isolated moral agent with no duties to others. It is not a good ethics for hard times, when our community shares economic or social troubles, calling on us to worry about the good of the community, not simply of individuals and which may entail imposing moral obligations on ourselves that require a broad notion of human welfare. John Stuart Mill, if read closely, seems to understand that need. The reduction of ethics to autonomy, to our formal relations with others in a political context, is insufficient for a good society and tears the heart of our ethics as a search for the way best to live one’s life.
Charles Dorn
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780801452345
- eISBN:
- 9781501712616
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452345.003.0012
- Subject:
- Education, History of Education
This epilogue argues that by the beginning of the twenty-first century, a social ethos of affluence dominated American higher education—a transformation that has hardly gone unnoticed. Most recently, ...
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This epilogue argues that by the beginning of the twenty-first century, a social ethos of affluence dominated American higher education—a transformation that has hardly gone unnoticed. Most recently, the already-aggressive pursuit of wealth by both educational institutions and their students has intensified through what many observers have labeled the corporatization of higher education. Of course, corporate values have been influencing higher education for well over a hundred year. In recent decades, however, the change has been of a much greater magnitude in both style and substance, as affluence-oriented colleges and universities have shifted from being influenced by commercial values to becoming corporate entities, with some higher-education institutions being established as for-profit corporations.Less
This epilogue argues that by the beginning of the twenty-first century, a social ethos of affluence dominated American higher education—a transformation that has hardly gone unnoticed. Most recently, the already-aggressive pursuit of wealth by both educational institutions and their students has intensified through what many observers have labeled the corporatization of higher education. Of course, corporate values have been influencing higher education for well over a hundred year. In recent decades, however, the change has been of a much greater magnitude in both style and substance, as affluence-oriented colleges and universities have shifted from being influenced by commercial values to becoming corporate entities, with some higher-education institutions being established as for-profit corporations.
