By Erin Rodway, Executive Editor
In hard economic times there seems to be one thing on everyone’s mind: money. Whether it be how and where to get it, or how to spend it, it’s there.
According to researchers at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School, it’s possible to buy happiness, but only if the money is spent on others. Professor Elizabeth Dunn found that people who spend money “pro-socially,” or on others, are happier than people that spend money on themselves. In this day and age, however, that rarely happens. In today’s economic crisis, people just don’t share their money like they used to, Linda Green, Northern Illinois Food Bank representative, said.
“[Our economy] is the biggest factor on the community,” Green said. “More and more people are lining up [to get food], but not enough people are donating.”
Even local community food banks have suffered, Trisha Mills, Elburn Food Bank volunteer, said. Another study, done by the Kellogg School of Management, found that individuals believe they have more personal restraint than they actually possess, ultimately leading to poor decision-making. In these economic times, the biggest temptation that is given into is theft.
“People are not good at anticipating the power of their urges, and those who are the most confident about their self-control are the most likely to give into temptation,” Loran Nordgren, assistant professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School, said.
According to Michelle Halbesma, director of the Second Chance Program in Kane County, about 50 percent of all cases charged, felony and misdemeanor, every month are retail theft and theft.
“I have seen people charged with [retail theft and theft] who you would never expect to see if the economic situation in the country were in a better place,” Halbesma said. “Stealing has a direct connection to greed.”
Besides being unhappy, theft has a larger impact on a person.
“Besides the fact of being charged with a crime and possibly spending time in jail, there are also stigmas placed on thieves,” Halbesma said. “No one wants to hire a thief.”
In Kane County, there is a program that Halbesma runs called the Second Chance Program. It is a program that allows people that break laws to avoid being convicted of [their broken law] and erases it from their record. It has various lengths, depending on the crime, and has a usual $750 program fee.
“[Teens] might think everybody [steals], so it can’t be bad, but once it’s done, it can’t be taken back. One must live with those consequences for the rest of their life,” Halbesma said.