「幸せってなんだっけ、なんだっけ・・・」この記事を読んで、明石家さんまのこの歌が浮かびました。こんな記事書いたら「一度稼いでから書けよ!」と言われそうですが、きっと天はこんな悩みで苦労しなくても一生働けるようにしてくれているのだ!と思うのです。
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お金はあればあるだけいいに決まっている──これが多くの日本人の共通感覚だろう。しかし実際は、お金を持ちすぎるがゆえの不幸がある。例えば、宝くじの高額当せん者は、当せんした直後は幸福度が急上昇するが、多くが3か月ほどで幸福度が下がるという。明治大学大学院情報コミュニケーション研究科講師で行動経済学者の友野典男さんが言う。
「アメリカの追跡調査では、宝くじの高額当せん者は、その後多くが破産しているといいます。消費行動が変化し、不幸を招くのでしょう」
宝くじは運頼みの一攫千金。安定的に高収入を得ていれば、やはり幸福度が高いのではないかと感じるが、そうでもないようだ。内閣府の最新の調査でも、最も満足度が高いのは年収2000万~3000万円の層で、それ以上になると満足度はゆっくりと下降する。満足度が最も低い年収100万円未満の“貧困層”ほどではないにしろ、年収1億円以上の“最富裕層”の満足度は、世帯年収を10段階に分けた中で、下から5番目だった。家計コンサルタントの八ツ井慶子さんが言う。
「億単位の貯蓄を持ち合わせているかたから“老後が不安だ”と相談を受けるケースもあります。以前、ある資産家の女性がわが子に監禁されたという話を聞いたことがあります。子供たちが自分にとって有利な遺言書を書かせようとしたのだそうです」
お金持ちには、お金目当てに有象無象の輩が集まってくる。その結果、人間不信に陥るケースも少なくない。ありあまる富と引き換えに孤独になるのだ。慶應義塾大学大学院システムデザイン・マネジメント研究所で幸福学を研究する前野マドカさんは、こう話す。
「人を信用できないので、いざというときに頼れる人がいなくなります。極端な話、目の前の、見えているお金しか信用できないわけです。幸せになるためにお金を稼いだのに、お金を持ったことが不幸を招いている。
もともと資産家であっても、お金だけを心のよりどころにしていれば不幸になります。コロナの影響で株価が乱高下し、大きな損失を出したある高齢女性は、損失を差し引いても多額の資産を持っていたにもかかわらず、“損した”ということに囚われて、心の病で入院してしまいました」
「コロナ禍で人に会えない孤独に耐えられなかったのです。いまは主婦や学生、高齢者など、いろいろな背景を持つバイト仲間と仕事終わりにお茶するのが、日々の楽しみになっています」(元社長)
彼にとっては、ひとりでお金を稼ぎ続けることよりも、時給をもらって仲間と働くことの方が幸せだったのかもしれない。
「お金や住宅、地位や名誉など、人と比較できる財産を『地位財』といい、これによって実感できる幸せは長続きしないことがわかっています。マイホームを手に入れたとしても、家への満足度は高まりますが、幸福度には相関がありません。ほかの人の“もっといい家”を目にすればうらやましくなり、その幸せは色あせてしまいます」
※女性セブン2021年11月4日号
How a former venture capitalist got a part-time job at a convenience store
When I read this article, this song by Akashiya Sanma came to my mind: "What is happiness? If I write an article like this, people might say, "You should write it after you've made some money! But I'm sure the heavens are making it possible for me to work for the rest of my life without having to struggle with such problems! I think.
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The more money you have, the better - this is probably the common feeling of many Japanese people. In reality, however, there are misfortunes associated with having too much money. For example, the happiness of high lottery winners rises sharply immediately after winning the lottery, but most of them lose happiness after about three months. Norio Tomono, a behavioral economist and lecturer at Meiji University's Graduate School of Information and Communication Studies, says, "In the U.S., follow-up studies have shown that people are happier when they win the lottery.
"According to a follow-up study in the U.S., many high lottery winners go bankrupt afterwards. It's probably a change in consumer behavior that leads to unhappiness.
The lottery is a luck-based get-rich-quick scheme. If you have a stable and high income, you might think that you would be happier, but that doesn't seem to be the case. According to the latest survey by the Cabinet Office, the highest level of satisfaction is in the 20-30 million yen income bracket, and the level of satisfaction slowly declines above that level. Although not as high as the "poor" with annual incomes of less than one million yen, the "wealthiest" with annual incomes of more than 100 million yen were fifth from the bottom in the 10 levels of household income. Keiko Yatsui, a household finance consultant, says, "If you have savings in the hundreds of millions of dollars, you are not satisfied.
"In some cases, people with savings in the hundreds of millions of dollars ask me for advice because they are worried about their retirement. I once heard a story about a wealthy woman who was locked up by her own children. She said that her children were trying to make her write a will that would be favorable to them.
Rich people have a lot of people who come to them for money. As a result, there are many cases where people fall into distrust of humanity. In exchange for their ample wealth, they become lonely. Madoka Maeno, a researcher in happiness studies at the Institute for Systems Design and Management, Keio University, says, "I don't trust people, so I don't trust them.
"You can't trust people, so you have no one to turn to in times of need. To put it another way, you can only trust the money you can see in front of you. They earned the money to be happy, but having the money is making them unhappy.
Even if you are a wealthy person by nature, you will be unhappy if money is the only thing you have in your heart. One elderly woman who lost a lot of money when the stock price fluctuated wildly due to Corona was hospitalized for mental illness because she was obsessed with the fact that she had lost money, even though she had a lot of assets after deducting the loss.
On the other hand, the former president of a venture company made a huge fortune by developing smartphone applications. However, he has now sold the company and is working part-time at a convenience store.
He said, "I couldn't stand the loneliness of not being able to see people because of the Corona disaster. Now I look forward to having tea after work with my colleagues from various backgrounds, including housewives, students, and the elderly.
For him, working with others for an hourly wage may have been happier than continuing to earn money on his own.
For him, working with others for an hourly wage may have made him happier than continuing to earn money by himself. "Assets that can be compared with others, such as money, housing, status, and honor, are called 'status goods. If you get your own home, you will be more satisfied with your home, but there is no correlation with happiness. When you see other people's 'better homes,' you become envious and your happiness fades away.
Weekly magazine
From Josei Seven, November 4, 2021 issue