When Did the Pursuit of Happiness Come to Stand for Consumerism?

The United States Declaration of Independence states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I always assumed the pursuit of happiness to mean pursuing a life filled with items that bring happiness.  For example, a nice home in the suburbs, a Mercedes, a ski boat, a house at the beach, and annual trips to Europe.  In my mind the items always represented the happiness part.  The pursuit always meant a stable job with a growing salary every year that eventually leads to the ability to afford said items.  If this isn’t how you too always viewed the Pursuit of Happiness, you may as well stop reading at this point because you’re way ahead of me.

Why is it that I believe happiness is linked to material wealth as defined by the Deceleration of Independence?  Is that really what our founding fathers had in mind when they wrote that passage?  Based on everything else in that passage my guess is that it’s not what they intended at all.

Take for example “all men are created equal”.  This makes no sense if you consider the pursuit of material things.  Of course some men have a trust fund when they are born while others have nothing but bad role models.  When we are talking about how much money people have, we all know it’s not fair, nor was it ever intended to be.

How about the mention of the Creator.  If anybody despises an obsession with earthly things, it’s God.

Lastly, how about the triplet: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Pursuit of Happiness is tripled up with Life.  It’s generally agreed that Life is invaluable; which is to say you can’t assign a dollar amount to it.  You can’t barter life for a private plane or for any number of Voodoo Donuts.  Life is a lot of things, but in itself it’s not material.

Similarly, Liberty is also of immeasurable value.  You can’t trade a person’s Liberty for some number of iPads.

So if we extrapolate the value of Life and Liberty to the Pursuit of Happiness, there is no way the founding fathers intended Happiness to equate to Consumerism.

So if Thomas Jefferson wasn’t referring to stuff, what was he talking about?  I think he meant the Pursuit of Greatness in one’s own life.  I’ll bet that at the time it was ‘self-evident’ that Greatness === Happiness.  Think about this extrapolation:  Life is the most basic requirement to be part of the human race, Liberty is the opportunity to live the life the way you choose, Happiness is choosing to live up to one’s own potential.  That triplet actually makes sense.

So it’s decided: the Pursuit of Happiness means living one’s life in such a way that everyday is filled with actions that maximize ones potential.  The challenge is knowing how to pursue it and in being able to enjoy the journey.