Fischer is the author of The Good Life: Aspiration, Dignity and the Anthropology of Wellbeing, (Stanford University Press, 2014). For The Good Life, Fischer studied German supermarket shoppers and Guatemalan coffee farmers to discover what hopes and dreams they share, and how anthropology can tell us about what the “good life” means for all of us.
Fischer describes the good life not as a goal but a journey.
Fischer found that these principles hold true for both middle-class Germans and poor Guatemalan Mayans.
So here are four principles to have a “Good Life” as Fischer recommends:
1. WANT MORE: We tend to assume the poor are exclusively driven by need, while wealthier people are driven by desire, he says, but the reality is that once a person’s basic needs are addressed, everyone tends to want the same sort of things.
2. GIVE A CHANCE: While we may all aspire to something better, aspirations don’t mean much without adequate opportunity to realize them, Fischer says.
Aspirations without opportunity lead to frustrations, even societal upheaval, as was seen with the Arab Spring, Fischer says.
3. LIVING WITH DIGNITY: The desire to live with dignity is universal. In Guatemala, the high-end coffee market allows the Maya to support their families by owning their own labour and working on their own land.
In Germany, workers’ dignity is very important. Many trades have guilds regulating and credentialing tradecrafts, formalizing the expertise necessary to become a master baker or bike mechanic.
4. A LARGE PURPOSE: Being able to live according to a greater purpose is the final component of the good life. While aspirations tend to be smaller, individual goals, purpose encompasses the big-picture ideals to which we dedicate our lives.
AND, THE BIG PICTURE: An economist will point out that a lot of Germans don’t actually end up buying the conscientiously produced eggs they say they prefer, but rather opt for the cheaper alternatives. But Fischer says that understanding that the preference exists in the first place is as important to good public policy as understanding what people ultimately end up doing. Anthropologists are the ones who ask those questions.
Using anthropology to inform public policy is a valuable way for policymakers to finally confront the thornier issues of wellbeing. “The question we have to ask,” Fischer says, “is ‘What kind of society do we want to live in?’”
