The Pursuit of Happiness: An Empty Promise

Over the past few weeks, our class has examined documents that describe fundamental human rights to which all individuals are entitled. An example of a document that acknowledges human rights is the United States’ Declaration of Independence. In the Statement of Human Rights in the Declaration of Independence, it affirms that all humans deserve the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

As I analyze the meaning of these human rights, I realize that the third of these rights, the right to pursue happiness, seems extremely difficult to enforce. Isn’t what constitutes happiness different for all humans?

I have identified three main reasons to support my position:

1) There is no way for the government to enforce that every citizen will have opportunities to be happy.

2) In a capitalist society where we are competing and working for the best lifestyle we can live, and it is not the government’s role to create an equal socio-economic playing field.

3) The world-wide problems that have affected past generations, and continue to affect our generation, make it difficult to prioritize the pursuit of happiness.

The first point described above means that defending everyone’s right to pursue happiness is essentially an empty promise. In my opinion, it does not seem possible that a legal system can monitor citizens’ opportunities to pursue happiness. In a country with over 300 million citizens, it is impossible for the government to make sure that every individual person has an opportunity to be happy.  To make matters more complicated, there is no way to tell what makes someone happy (without personally knowing them). What may make one happy might not make another happy.  For this reason, the government has no way of knowing if one’s right to pursue happiness is being violated or not.

My second problem with the “pursuit of happiness” is that our society thrives and progresses based on a competitive mindset.  For good or for bad, the government is not set up to makes sure that everyone has the same opportunities and choices. By the same token, citizens don’t work to make everyone equally happy. We work to make ourselves happy.  I do not mean to say that Americans are selfish and live only for their own pleasure, but the motivation behind making money is usually for personal gain.  It is not to give everyone the same set of opportunities. In our capitalist society, most people work to live the most comfortable lives they can, not to create a society where every single citizen is content. 

My third reason for why this “human right” is not enforceable is that the problems in our world often demand our government’s more immediate attention than citizens’ happiness. For example, how could the government promise citizens the right to pursue happiness while drafting men to the battlefields of Vietnam of Afghanistan? My generation is experiencing a problem that I fear may impinge on our pursuit of happiness as well. Generations before us have been exploiting the world’s natural resources, ruining ecosystems, producing harmful greenhouse-gas emissions that contribute to climate change, and ultimately endangering the future of human existence.  Now it is my generation’s responsibility to clean up the mess that previous generations created.  The need to confront these problems seems to impede my right to pursue happiness.  Does this mean that our generation does not have the opportunity to live for fun and excitement, but rather must dedicate our lives to fixing the problems created before us?

All in all, I strongly believe that the pursuit of happiness should not be classified as a human right.  The idea that all citizens deserve to pursue happiness seems morally desirable, but there is no way for a government to enforce it.