Role of the Community and the Equality of Opportunity in Generating the Sense of Equality and Happiness

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of community in reducing the sense of inequality and anxiety for the risks in life empirically by using the survey data. We hypothesized that the decline in the functioning of community in mutual support reduces the risk insurance role of community and affects the sense of equality and fairness negatively. In testing this hypothesis, we focus on the mobility of the respondents, because it is possible to consider the possibility that fundamental sense of equality is generated through the experiences of mobility among income classes. The results of the analysis show that the sense of inequality is largely affected by the sense of fairness of the relative position in the society, and the improving the role of community enhances the degree of happiness through the improvement of life security, but has little effect on the sense of fairness. The results suggest the possibility of Esterlin Paradox in case where the economic growth decreases the community functioning.