The Patz McMillan Team

Have you noticed that the more Decembers you live through, the less attractive the material side of this month becomes? Many Canadians are discovering that this disillusionment with shopping and accumulating "stuff" is spreading into other areas of their lives, too. The current emphasis on "green" encourages this simplifying approach to life.

As Canada's 9.8 million Baby Boomers, who now range in age from 41 to 60, move through life, they'll amplify the natural life-cycle maturity trend that carries individuals away from self-expression through ownership of material goods to an exploration of life through experiences. This aspect of maturity is one reason advertisers virtually ignore mature consumers. The movement away from materialism means less shopping as time goes on (even if that's hard to visualize now), so why not get a financial jump on your future?

Spending less on things, most of them non-essential, is good news for land fill sites, the environment and especially dreams of property ownership. Direct more income to investment in real estate, and stop wasting it on impulse shopping and credit card interest, and your money will begin to work for you.

The 1995 release of the National Film Board film, Who's Counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics started Canadians thinking about the inaccuracies of economic measurement of many of the things that matter, much of it based on 18th and 19th century thinking, including the unpaid work of women and the environment. There's a new book out now that picks up where Waring left off with suggestions for transforming money and economics into something we can live with.

"We think money is the root of all happiness, but it is empty, created out of emptiness and it is created out of debt," said Alberta-based ecological economist Mark Anielski, author of The Economics of Happiness (New Society, 2007). He went on to explain that he was referring to our economy which is based on derivatives, not the making of anything, and on consistently transferring wealth from the poor to the rich, which continually consolidates wealth in fewer and fewer hands.

In The Economics of Happiness, Anielski explains that genuine wealth goes beyond how much money you have: "If true wealth represents all those conditions of life that contribute to our individual and community well-being, how do we decide what factors matter most? I would argue that our values, principles and beliefs define the conditions of well-being. What we value most about life defines our real wealth ... . And if each of us can define real wealth personally, the term common wealth can then be defined as conditions of well-being of the commons or community, not only as concern for the common good. Measuring real wealth we should include not only monetary and worldly possessions but qualitative attributes like health (physical and mental), spiritual well-being, healthy relationships, love and respect, the condition of our physical living environment and the well-being of nature."

Readers who want to understand the logic behind the economics of well-being will appreciate the detailed explanations that Anielski offers for his evolution from economist to ecological economist, and for his proof of the relevance of the economics of well-being.

Take the book's Personal Genuine Wealth Survey and you'll begin to see how everything from your upbringing and childhood experiences to relationships and leisure activities contribute to well-being and happiness and make your life worthwhile.

Dig into the origins of your personal value system and you may realize that levels of happiness are buried beneath layers of dissatisfaction bred by our advertising-driven society. What do you value? What are the essential elements of "home" to you? Our earlier column on clever use of interior space [ clever use of interior space ], proves that a home is what you make it. Is the size and decor of your home a true reflection of essentials for your well-being? What relationship between economics and happiness have you, consciously or unconsciously, chosen to live with?

Among projections of his genuine wealth economy, Anielski includes movement away from banks that charge interest: "I see cooperative member-owned banks and credit unions operating locally within a community and replacing the current large privately owned banks, whose directors and shareholders are absent. Ownership in these financial institutions would be widely held by citizens in a community in the form of a cooperative business enterprise."

Anielski offers the strength of existing international cooperative organizations, including Canada's Mountain Equipment Coop and Credit Unions, as proof of the viability of a genuine-wealth-based revision of community wealth distribution. Whether you agree with Anielski's vision or not, this book could be a starting point for those who want to reevaluate their views on giving, receiving and happiness at this time of year and into 2008.