As the editor-in-chief and other executives of the corporation must have realized in advance, in the early 1980s the “Baby Boom” generation was beginning to enter the time of life when salaries traditionally grow and money is put aside for retirement. Moreover, the American stock market was considerably undervalued. And over the next twenty years, Baby Boomers’ salaries did indeed grow, and, as these people invested their retirement savings and surplus income, the stock market began to recover. Whether those who followed the advice of this magazine made more or less money than the average investor would be impossible to determine. But certainly as more and more people saw money being made on the stock market, more and more people became enthusiastic about investing and purchased copies of this magazine and others that promoted investing. The market rose to unprecedented — some said frightening — levels, at least temporarily enriching many American professionals.

          I cast my vote with those who believe that happiness is what you feel when even your unconscious is not wondering whether you are happy or not. However, this is a bit of a joke, as must be any other attempted definition of happiness. Wanting for nothing, a clean conscience, requited love, seeing your dreams come true, watching your children grow up — all this sounds most happy on paper, but proves slippery in life. The moment one wants for nothing, for example, one wants for something else. And above all one may want for something else because one is panicked by the idea of wanting for nothing.

          Nonetheless, certainly at moments when the enriched American professionals focused on how their net worth was increasing — or when they saw themselves buying the cars and vacationing at the resorts featured in the glossy pages of magazines like the one I worked for — these people felt enviable, and the resulting surges of pride and satisfaction could be declared happiness. And moreover, since thanks to this magazine and so many other American publications and institutions, these professionals believed that financial success and happiness went hand-in-hand, when they thought of the size of their “nest eggs”, these people believed that they were happy — no matter how otherwise lonely, anxious, inadequate or unenviable they felt. And enjoying an illusion of happiness is one of the singular pleasures of human life.

Smile continued