Oliver James is to stop writing for The Observer. Good. He can spend some time reading some economics to sharpen up his currently very confused thinking.

The Affluenza virus is a set of values which increase our vulnerability
to psychological distress: placing a high value on acquiring money and
possessions, looking good in the eyes of others and wanting to be
famous. Many studies have shown that infection with the virus increases
your susceptibility to the commonest mental illnesses: depression,
anxiety, substance abuse and personality disorder.

Yes, he does go on to say that Anglo-Saxon capitalism makes you mad.

Sigh.What’s so annoying is that he’s conflating two entirely different things. The first is the pursuit of social status. All and every pack or herd animal does this and it is usually about access to mating opportunities. Apes do it more than most and humans more than they.

That this is true is simply a commonplace. But this is where I think his analysis goes wrong, for he conflates this basic fact of existence with the particular form it takes in our society, that of economic income. We’e tried other forms of denoting social status, by birth, the intensity of religious belief, brute physical strength, and found them to be wanting, even more so than the method we have now. For what is missed is that by individually pursuing social status (which is a zero sum game) via economic income we also produce more, and that isn’t a zero sum game.

Indeed, there is ample evidence that growth in the economic pie in and of itself leads to a happier society overall.

Rather, the starting point should be that the pursuit of social status is simply a given. Something that is innate within us. Now, OK, how are we going to work the rules and mores of society to route that competition to where it does least harm?