Happiness a luxury at the poverty level

I’m sure Tal Ben-Shahar’s “don’t worry, be happy” approach to the workplace resonates very well with professionals like himself, most of whom enjoy access to decent health insurance, a retirement plan, enough money to put aside for the future, college for their children, etc. (“Happy at job? It’s how you look at it,” Oct. 31.)

But for working folks below or near the poverty line who struggle to make a living wage and have to forgo health insurance in order to buy food, that Pollyanna advice rings a little hollow. It takes a fair amount of chutzpah to gloss over the very real difficulties faced by people stuck on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.

If Ben-Shahar really thinks CEOs and janitors have equal burdens and the same chance at happiness, I suggest he ask members of the former group if they’d voluntarily switch places with the latter.

Bonnie Sloane

Los Angeles