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Yes, the immediate problem I see with this new study is that it presents the relation between happiness and income as almost linear, which is, on the face of it
by wazoox 6y ago
Yes, the immediate problem I see with this new study is that it presents the relation between happiness and income as almost linear, which is, on the face of it, almost unbelievable at lower income levels. Can you really believe that going from dirt poor to OK doesn't make more difference than going from very rich to very, very rich? I myself can't without further evidence. I can believe there is no plateau as such, but a linear progression requires explanation.
- cbozeman 6y agoScale does indeed matter. The life you can live at $35,000 a year is going to be dramatically less pleasant than the life you can live at $350,000 a year, just as the life you can live at $35,000,000 a year is going to be dramatically more pleasant than at either of those, but eventually you reach a point where even if you were to make $35,000,000,000 a year, it cannot dramatically change your life. At some point, you become so wealthy that the only difficulties that life can present to you are difficulties from which no person has immunity.
- jcheng 6y agoJust want to point out that the abstract says the relationship is linear with log(income). And Fig 1 shows an x-axis range of 15,000-500,000; even if their conclusions are true, I wouldn't be surprised if the relationship breaks down beyond those limits.