Well this assumes that life-satisfaction is the same thing as happiness, and I'm not sure it necessarily is: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/10070

Well this assumes that life-satisfaction is the same thing as happiness, and I'm not sure it necessarily is: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100701072652.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100701072652.ht... "A worldwide survey of more than 136,000 people in 132 countries included questions about happiness and income, and the results reveal that while life satisfaction usually rises with income, positive feelings don't necessarily follow, researchers report." And some further recent research on the matter reviewed here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-money-buy-happiness http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-money-b... Basically - increasing wealth makes you immune to the smaller/simpler joys in life. From the paper you quoted, this was also in the abstract: "HIV prevalence in Africa has little effect on Africans’ life or health satisfaction" which actually supports my other assertion that those with disabling diseases or conditions are no less happy than those more fortunate (assuming you equate life-satisfaction with happiness).