Practice Prudence

Must citizens of the United States of America maintain their present level of material consumption in order to feel good about their lives?  Not if recent studies in happiness have any merit.  Research shows that once a fairly modest standard of living has been achieved, the happiness curve flattens out.  Further gains in possessions, opportunities, and income do little to inflate that feeling.  Moreover, “most American consumption is wasteful and contributes little or nothing to our wellbeing, the eminent social geographer Jared Diamond says.  Our overall quality of life wouldn’t suffer a bit and might even improve if we learned to cut back.  Western Europeans consume half the oil that we do, yet statistics dealing with life expectancy, health, infant mortality, access to medical care, financial security after retirement, vacation time, quality of public schools, and support for the arts, all surpass ours.  

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What if America’s ballyhooed standard of living - coupled with our anxiety about maintaining it - is what’s really dragging us down?  Prudence counsels that we scale back, but that needn’t imply sacrifice.  it may be our best chance to fend off what Buddhism describes as the “hungry ghost” syndrome - a craving for transient goods that proves to be insatiable - and get back in touch with the true wellsprings of human health and happiness. 

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The genuinely prudent individual is just as concerned with what makes the heart sing as with careful planning and proper management of the purse strings.  It’s about discernment - making decisions whereby the whole person and the whole planet are well-served and their futures ensured.