The life of human society is closely interconnected with a wide range of problems, and the burden of choice remains one of them.
There is no doubt that various communities can live by their own rules but there is no society that would be able to avoid choosing between material prosperity and mental health of the citizens. In his work devoted to the connection between real happiness and money, McKibben (2010) discusses the way that authorities in different countries sort out priorities. To present his ideas more effectively, the author introduces two opposite characters represented by birds called “More and Better” (McKibben, 2010, para.1).
In general, the author touches upon a few important questions in his work. To begin with, he explains that a lot of people still believe that increased production may have a positive impact on happiness levels and that this idea may be regarded as sound in certain cases. Apart from that, he assumes that material growth that society experiences often leads to consequences that are opposite to the very nature of happiness.
Among the latter, he lists such problems as growing social disparity and increased anxiety due to financial uncertainty experienced by common people in different countries all over the world. To prove the consistency of his idea, the author uses the facts related to British and American history illustrating the struggle of two opposite positions – the prevalence of quality and quantity.
On a final note, the given source presents a great amount of information helping the readers to better understand the way that the priorities are sorted out in the modern world. More than that, the core idea of the work is expressed through the use of unusual comparisons making the article more attractive for the audience.
References
McKibben, B. (2010). Reversal of Fortune. Web.