We all know what money
can’t buy us: love and, above a certain basic level, happiness. And
this month we discovered that it can’t always buy us good health,
either. Perhaps David Cameron is on to something when he says that
“it’s time we admitted that there’s more to life than
money, and it’s time we
It’s all very well for him, with
his rich wife, was the reflex response of many who read his speech this
week. They doubt that he has ever had to worry about paying his council tax
bill. And it’s true that money worries are not confined to those at
the bottom of the income scale. There are plenty of relatively high-earning
professionals who scrimp desperately to pay school fees or to afford a
family house in London.
But even they probably underestimate the
effect on their health and happiness of factors other than money, such as
good rela! tionships
and time off work. A fascinating study published in the Journal of the
American Medical Association this month
found that white, middle-aged Americans, even though they spend more than
twice as much on healthcare as their English counterparts, have far higher
rates of diabetes, heart disease, strokes, lung disease and cancer than we
do.
It’s not just that they are fatter
than we are (though they are), as the results hold even when the sample is
adjusted for obesity. We drink more than they do but are still healthier.
It’s not that we all have free treatment on the NHS: the study found
that even the wealthiest Americans, all of whom have health insurance, are
as unhealthy as the poorest English. And it is not that America’s
large proportion of ethnic minorities skews the result, as the research
focused only on non-Hispanic whites.
“It was a bit of a big
shock,” confessed Dr Michael Marmot, one of the study’s
authors. “Everybody should be discussing it: why isn’t the
richest country in the world the healthiest country in the world?”
One of the Americans who worked with him on the research said that, at first,
no one wanted to believe the data. But the results are clear. The only
question is, why?
Americans have been beating their breasts
in print since the study was published, and one theory is that it is partly
due to the way they live and work. As Paul Krugman
wrote in The New York Times: “Americans work too hard and
experience too much stress. Maybe overwork, together with the stress of
living in an economy with a minimal social safety net, damages our
health.”
Compared with other Europeans, we British
see ourselves as working long hours and suffering job insecurity. But
compared with the lives of Americans, ours are a doddle.
Yes, the average Italian gets 42 days of paid holiday a year to our 28. But
Americans take only 14 of the 16 days to which they are entitled. No wonder
they are frazzled and their blood pressure shoots up.
No wonder, also, that they are no happier
than we are, despite their greater wealth. All studies of happiness find
that, above an income level that meets our basic needs, extra money does
not make us happier. What does are strong relationships and relinquishing
the desire to keep up with our neighbours.
Buying the latest designer goods
won’t make us happy, particularly when we see our credit card
statement at the end of the month. But being allowed to work more flexibly
so that we spend more time with our families can make a big difference. You
don’t necessarily have to sacrifice income to do so. Many parents now
leave the office early to see their children after school but catch up on
their work later in the evening after their offspring have gone to bed.
Simply being more in control of your
working hours can make a big difference to happiness, or “general
wellbeing”, as Cameron puts it. In his speech he cited the experience
of BT: “At BT, flexible working policies reduced absenteeism to 3.1
per cent, compared with a national average of 8.5 per cent. And 99 per cent
of women return after maternity leave, compared with a national average of
47 per cent.”
Lots of people can’t afford to go
part-time to see more of their family and friends. But they can, if their
employers let them, arrange their working hours in different ways. That is
likely to make them — and the people around them — happier and
healthier.
And the knock-on effects can be huge. As
Cameron asks: “How can we hope to address issues like education,
crime, antisocial behaviour, poverty and health
when so much evidence points to the crucial role of relationships —
especially relationships between parents and their children — in shaping
these things?”
How indeed?