A Study Of People’s Happiness From The Perspective Of Histoircal Materialism

What is happiness? Where does it come from? The definition of happiness variesfrom person to person, and one may also make it differently under various phases andcircumstances of life. No matter how happiness is defined, it should always be based on thesatisfaction of basic needs and the success of subsistence. From ancient to modern times,people have always been the makers of the history and the embodiment of productive forces.Material and spiritual wealth produced by people is the support of the existence anddevelopment of human society. Civilizations and good life are the harvest of the hard work ofpeople who are the principal part in the creation of history and happiness.China has made great progress in the economic construction in recent years. The ChineseGDP has surpassed Japan, marking China the second largest economic entity of the world.The life of Chinese people has improved remarkably in together with the development ofeconomy and society. However, statistics show that personal sense of happiness does not gostronger with the increase with material wealth. This indicates that people does not surely feelmore happy with only material assurance. There is no absolute positive correlation betweenthe increase of happiness and wealth, and the “wealth-happiness” paradox has come intobeing. The widening gaps between rural and urban people and between the rich and the poor,and the unbalanced distribution of chances in political participation and of public resourceslike education, health care and social security make people feel unfair and relatively deprived.Public satisfaction and happiness indexes go down. This has caused the reflection ofwellbeing problems. To achieve the greatest happiness of the greatest number based on theconstantly economic and social development has been an unavoidable issue.From the perspective of historical materialism, this paper makes clear the definitions of people and happiness. The discussion of people’s happiness is made from the aspects ofeconomy, politics, culture, society and ecology, pointing out that people’s happiness isachieved by enhancing economic development, democratic politics, cultural construction,social regulation and eco-civilization. People’s happiness is the ultimate measure of value, avital part and the foothold of the Chinese Dream.