Future Happiness -
Sobre o paper:
About the paper:
One highlight of the research is the evidence that Brazil is nine times world champion of future happiness, straight from 2006 to 2014. The Brazilian citizen assessed the average score of 8,6 to its expectations of life satisfaction five years ahead, the highest of all the 150 countries surveyed. Marcelo Neri suggests that it could well be one reason for the fact that the country has low savings rates and high interest rates: the Brazilians, more than any other people, believe that the best is yet to come. This excess of optimism is a characteristic of the youth, regardless of the country, and is reflected on the decline of future satisfaction throughout the life cycle for citizens around the World. More than a young country in its demographic composition, Brazil is inhabited by the young at heart. This enables to reconcile two qualifications often attributed to Brazil: “country of the future”, by some, and “young country”, by others.
The other aspect addressed by the research refers to a relatively low expectation of each Brazilian with respect to the general happiness of the nation, indicating a high dissonance between the prospective vision of each Brazilian about her own life and her respective vision of the country as a whole. This second aspect is consistent with a greater importance, in the national context, of problems associated with collective action. Examples such as high inflation and high inequality, which placed Brazil at the top of their respective rankings. These elements were recipients of major advances in Brazilian society over the past two decades. According to the researcher, in the present moment, the Brazilian society seems to be particularly uncoordinated between individual aspirations and collective possibilities.