SECTION B
Essay
125 marks
Contentment is natural wealth; luxury is artificial poverty.
WRITE IN
90 min
1,000–1,200 words
Reading the topic
The topic says contentment is real wealth because it needs nothing more, while luxury is a form of poverty because it creates endless new wants. The examiner expects the essay to explore needs versus wants, consumerism, the link between income and happiness, and ecological limits, while avoiding a defence of poverty or complacency.
ThesisContentment frees people from the endless chase that luxury creates, and a society that values sufficiency over excess is both happier and more sustainable.
Dimensions to cover
- 1Psychology: people quickly adapt to new comforts and want more, so luxury keeps the mind permanently dissatisfied
- 2Economy: beyond a level that meets needs, rising incomes add less to happiness than expected
- 3Environment: luxury consumption drives a disproportionate share of resource use and emissions
- 4Culture: Indian traditions of aparigraha and santosha treat limiting desire as a source of freedom
- 5Society: conspicuous consumption fuels debt, envy and inequality, eroding social cohesion
- 6Caution: contentment must not become an excuse for denying the poor their basic needs or discouraging ambition
Counter-view
- Economists may argue that desire for more drives innovation, jobs and growth, and contentment leads to stagnation. The essay should agree that striving matters, but separate ambition for meaningful achievement from the chase for status goods that leaves people poorer in spirit
Open and close
- Open: Begin with Tolstoy's peasant Pahom running at sunset to claim one more patch of land, and collapsing just as he reaches the finishing mark
- Close: Conclude that true wealth is measured by how little one needs to feel secure, and that public policy should aim at sufficiency for all rather than luxury for some
Where marks usually go
- Glorifying poverty or telling the poor to be content with deprivation
- Writing only a moral sermon without economic and ecological evidence
- Equating contentment with laziness or lack of ambition
Examples that fit
- ThinkerRichard Easterlin found that as national incomes rose over time, average reported happiness did not rise in step, the Easterlin paradox.Easterlin, 'Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot?' (1974)
- LiteratureTolstoy's Pahom keeps acquiring land until he dies racing to claim more, and is buried in a plot just six feet long.How Much Land Does a Man Need? (1886), Leo Tolstoy
- CaseIndia launched Mission LiFE in 2022, urging mindful consumption over wasteful use as a people's movement for the environment.Mission LiFE, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
- ThinkerBrickman and Campbell described the hedonic treadmill, where people return to a baseline of happiness after gains, so luxury rarely satisfies for long.Brickman and Campbell, 'Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society' (1971)