The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies Robert E. Lane

Why in prosperous market democracies today do so many people regard themselves as unhappy? Robert Lane draws on extensive research in many fields to show that the main sources of well-being in advanced economies are friendships and a good family life; income has little to do with happiness once a person rises above the poverty level. Lane urges us to alter priorities and emphasise companionship over higher income.

"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