Regularly we hear stories in the news about people who have won the lottery.
Sometimes there are follow-up stories about what happened to them years later. Most of
the stories are discouraging. A famous study of major lottery winners in the Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology found that happiness was elusive for most of the
winners. Most were less happy than before they won.

Does this mean that money will make us unhappy? No, but it does show the value
of earned success. This is something that Arthur Brooks has been studying for some time.
Put simply, people are more likely to be happier and more satisfied if they earn their
success rather than have it given to them. Arthur Brooks concludes that “earned success
facilitates the pursuit of happiness, unearned success generally impedes it.”

Let’s apply this to the entitlement culture that has developed over the last few
decades. One study found that “going on the welfare rolls increases by 16% the
likelihood of a person saying he or she has felt inconsolably sad over the past month.”
Another study found “that single mothers who were required by the 1990s welfare reform
to work for their benefits—and therefore lost leisure time, had to find child care and the
like—were still significantly happier about their lives after the reforms than before.”

These, and other studies, suggest that Americans will be less happy in the future
as the government continues to expand the welfare state. Fewer and fewer people earn
their way in America while more and more become dependent upon a government
subsidy. A record number of Americans are on food stamps. Entitlements as a percentage
of the federal budget have doubled since 1960. The Tax Foundation estimates that nearly
70 percent of Americans now take more out of the tax system than they pay into it.

We are heading to a future where there will be less earned success and less
happiness.