Geography of Bliss

     In his book, Geography of Bliss, Eric Weiner talks about his search for the happiest places in the world. During chapter 10 titled “America” he describes how happiness is perceived in the United States. A few of the things he mentions are that, the United States is the world’s twenty third happiest nation and that it is not as happy as it is wealthy. In the following I will discuss some interesting quotes from the reading.

“Clearly, one dynamic at work is rising expectations. We compare ourselves not to the America of 1950 but to the America of today and, more specifically to our neighbors of today. We give lip service to the notion that money can’t buy happiness but act as if it does. When asked what would improve the quality of their lives, Americans’ number one answer was money” (Weiner, 424).

     People will always have rising expectations that prevent them from being happy as long as they keep comparing themselves to others. Humans can never be truly happy if they are always wanting, what the other person has. Furthermore, being the capitalist and consumeristic society that America is has definitely influenced their views on happiness. To most of them money equals happiness, money is everything.  Hence, the more money you have the happier you are supposed to be. If they act like this it is because they were taught by society and learned to be this way.

"We are able to acquire many of the things that we think will make us happy and therefore suffer the confusion and disappointment when they do not" (Weiner, 425).

     This quote is the perfect example that money cannot buy happiness. The reason why people feel disappointed and confused when they acquire things they thought would make them happy and they did not, it’s because people tend to have the misconception that money can buy happiness, when in fact it can’t. Sadly, some people have a bad habit of measuring happiness with wealth and the amount of materialistic things they can possess. How they should really measure happiness is by quality of life; as long as you have health, family and a home you should be happy.

"The problem with finding paradise is that others might find it, too... Paradise is a moving target" (Weiner, 437).

     You do not want your paradise to be another person's paradise. Paradise is someone's happy place, where they feel most comfortable and at home. When other people find paradise in the same place you found yours, there is a chance that it will stop being your paradise because it will have lost what made it so special to you; and you will move on in search of a new one. Therefore, paradise is a moving target; it is a place that may or may not change throughout your life.