It’s the least wonderful time of the year.
One-fifth of Americans already have cheated on their New Year’s resolutions, according to a recent poll. Nearly half the country didn’t make it that far; 46 percent abandoned their resolutions before they started them. Research indicates only 8 percent of us will have kept our resolutions by year’s end.
There’s some good news. Social scientists finally have an answer to that age-old question: What really makes us happy? After accounting for genetics and the short-lived impact of recent events, it turns out only 12 percent of happiness is under our control. But if we focus on the right things, this 12 percent can have a profound impact.
Data show four basic values have the biggest influence on our happiness: faith, family, community and work. Studies consistently demonstrate that people of faith are consistently happier. Ditto for family life, which trumps loneliness. And try convincing someone that friendships and community involvement aren’t worth their time.
More than half of Americans report being “very” or “completely” satisfied with their work. Add the “fairly” satisfied, and that number increases to more than 80 percent. Meanwhile, unemployment proves disastrous for happiness. From laid-off workers to lottery winners, countless studies show people who lack vocations are dramatically less happy.
The secret to happiness through work is earned success. It is deeply satisfying to apply our skills and create value in our lives and those of others. No wonder Americans who feel successful in the workplace are twice as likely to say they’re happy overall.
Economic opportunity is critical. Opportunity is the gateway to a key source of human happiness.
In 1980, more than 20 percent of Americans in the bottom-income quintile could expect to break into the middle class within 10 years. Today, that number has fallen to 15 percent. Increasingly, Americans at the bottom are stuck at the bottom — a moral tragedy.
The solution to this opportunity crisis lies in the principles of free enterprise: individual liberty, equal opportunity, entrepreneurship and self-reliance. Societies built on these pillars have lifted more than a billion people out of starvation-level poverty. As these principles erode, social and economic mobility shrink.
The right policies can reverse this trend. We need schools that put children’s civil rights ahead of adults’ job security. We need to encourage job creation for the most marginalized and declare war on barriers to entrepreneurship at all levels. And we need to revive our moral appreciation for the cultural elements of success.
Unfortunately, many economists believe free enterprise has slowly declined in America in recent decades, which explains the falling opportunity levels among the poor.
Earned success is the secret to happiness, and only renewing our spirit of free enterprise will give every American an equal opportunity to pursue it. That’s why fighting for free enterprise is a New Year’s resolution worth keeping.
Arthur Brooks is president of the American Enterprise Institute.
