Volume 46, Number 12 · July 15, 1999
The Power of the Electronic Herd
By Benjamin M. Friedman
The Lexus and the Olive Tree
by Thomas L. Friedman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 394 pp., $27.50
In a widely publicized study carried out in the late 1950s and early 1960s, researchers asked citizens of more than a dozen countries around the world whether they were happy with their lives. While the answers indicated a wide range of attitudes within each country, the surprising result—which attracted much comment at the time, and for some years thereafter—was that, on average, the citizens of poor countries were no less satisfied than those of rich countries. Germany's per capita income was four times Yugoslavia's and fourteen times Nigeria's, but Germans and Yugoslavians and Nigerians were all, on average, about equally happy.
Review, 6394 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |