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H L Mencken once defined a wealthy man as one who earns $100 a year more than his wife's sister's husband.

by rg 16y ago

frankus 16y ago
Robert Frank has a book (Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class) that makes a convincing case that that effect does in fact exist. He goes on to argue for a progressive consumption tax, which is fairly convincing depending on your politics.
- ellyagg 16y ago
  "[D]epending on your politics", indeed. It's not self-evident that everyone should be equally happy. It's not even self-evident that happiness should be the overriding concern of our existence. I've sacrificed my happiness many times in the name of other principles, especially truth. And, it wasn't "sacrifice temporarily for greater happiness later" or any other such rationalization.
  - frankus 16y ago
    I agree, but that everyone should be equally happy is not what the book argues at all. Frank's argument boils down to the fact that a lot of categories of consumption are zero-sum games, and that if played with lower stakes people could afford more important things with the money they save. For instance, if every SUV owner has to have 20-inch wheels to appear wealthy, SUV owners aren't as a whole are worse off than if 18-inch wheels were considered a sign of wealth and they all had health insurance. So the argument is that there are a lot of consumption arms races in the economy where some sort of coordinated de-escalation would benefit all of the players. The coordination he proposes is a progressive consumption tax imposed by the government, which I would agree is probably superior to the current progressive income tax.
jseliger 16y ago
Upvoted. People interested in this discussion should also read Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert, which discusses the surprising vast amount of research on various aspects of happiness, and that research draws on a fairly diverse array of methods (self-reports, random beepers, inferences based on statistics, etc.). Gilbert puts the dollar amount closer to $40K, rather than $60K, and points out the Mencken quote in action: most people think they need to earn about 20% more than they do, almost regardless of how much they earn. But people seem more satisfied by work they find meaningful, a good sex life, and social connections (not necessarily in that order). I mentioned Stumbling on Happiness in my list of influential / important books to me: http://jseliger.com/2010/03/22/influential-books-on-me-that-is http://jseliger.com/2010/03/22/influential-books-on-me-that-... , though perhaps I should've said more about it.

H L Mencken once defined a wealthy man as one who earns $100 a year more than his wife's sister's husband.

by rg 16y ago

H L Mencken once defined a wealthy man as one who earns $100 a year more than his wife's sister's husband.

Robert Frank has a book (Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class) that makes a convincing case that that effect does in fact exist. He goes on to argue for a progressive consumption tax, which is fairly convincing depending on your politics.

ellyagg 16y ago
"[D]epending on your politics", indeed. It's not self-evident that everyone should be equally happy. It's not even self-evident that happiness should be the overriding concern of our existence. I've sacrificed my happiness many times in the name of other principles, especially truth. And, it wasn't "sacrifice temporarily for greater happiness later" or any other such rationalization.
- frankus 16y ago
  I agree, but that everyone should be equally happy is not what the book argues at all. Frank's argument boils down to the fact that a lot of categories of consumption are zero-sum games, and that if played with lower stakes people could afford more important things with the money they save. For instance, if every SUV owner has to have 20-inch wheels to appear wealthy, SUV owners aren't as a whole are worse off than if 18-inch wheels were considered a sign of wealth and they all had health insurance. So the argument is that there are a lot of consumption arms races in the economy where some sort of coordinated de-escalation would benefit all of the players. The coordination he proposes is a progressive consumption tax imposed by the government, which I would agree is probably superior to the current progressive income tax.

jseliger 16y ago

Upvoted. People interested in this discussion should also read Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert, which discusses the surprising vast amount of research on various aspects of happiness, and that research draws on a fairly diverse array of methods (self-reports, random beepers, inferences based on statistics, etc.). Gilbert puts the dollar amount closer to $40K, rather than $60K, and points out the Mencken quote in action: most people think they need to earn about 20% more than they do, almost regardless of how much they earn. But people seem more satisfied by work they find meaningful, a good sex life, and social connections (not necessarily in that order). I mentioned Stumbling on Happiness in my list of influential / important books to me: http://jseliger.com/2010/03/22/influential-books-on-me-that-is http://jseliger.com/2010/03/22/influential-books-on-me-that-... , though perhaps I should've said more about it.