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If you love/are addicted to your work, you don't care if you're making some else (or yourself) rich. And because we KNOW that wealth doesn't correlate with hap

If you love/are addicted to your work, you don't care if you're making some else (or yourself) rich. And because we KNOW that wealth doesn't correlate with happiness, why SHOULD you care if you make them rich?

droz 14y ago
Because it makes you a stooge if you don't reap the financial rewards of your labour.
- Evbn 14y ago
  I hope your pile of money is in bills, as those are softer than coins. Or maybe money isn't your happiness, but merely one means to an end.
- webwright 14y ago
  What's a stooge? Someone who enjoys their life and the byproduct of that is that someone else gets rich? The point is-- that guy you made rich? You didn't make him happy. You didn't impact his happiness at all (long term). So someone who gets rich on the back of your (rewarding/enjoyable work) isn't getting ANYTHING but shiny objects your monkey brain tells you equal happiness. I pasted these into another comment, but here are some studies around wealth and happiness: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.h... (tl;dw: After a brief burst of happiness, wealth has the approximately the same long-term impact on happiness as losing your legs in an accident (i.e. NONE)) http://www.cnbc.com/id/100431776 http://www.cnbc.com/id/100431776 tl;dr the wealthy don't believe that money buys you happiness. http://www.livescience.com/5462-happiness-wealth.html http://www.livescience.com/5462-happiness-wealth.html "Wealth, fame and good looks may be a formula for anxiety rather than happiness, a new study suggests." There's TONS of data on this.
  - ahomescu1 14y ago
    The other guy doesn't just get shiny objects, they also get influence and power over other people, along with freedom to do (mostly) what they want. One very relevant example: you can move to the US and get a green card as an investor, if you invest a six figure amount. This is also true for other Western countries. Money buys you freedom to not work, freedom to live wherever you want, and sometimes it can even buy you laws (or avoidance of existing laws).
    - webwright 14y ago
      Yep. All(most) rich people have lots of power and freedom. Does THAT make them happy? Because all of the data indicates that wealth (and all of its accompanying benefits) do NOT. Note that $ does correlate with happiness on the low end of the scale. i.e. being very poor correlates with unhappiness. But beyond about $75k/yr, no correlation.
      - wildgift 14y ago
        Since wealth won't make the rich happier, but poverty seems to make the poor suffer in very concrete ways (like lacking medical insurance), it would make sense for the poor to be paid better, and the wealthy to have smaller paychecks.
        nostrademons 14y ago
        It wouldn't actually help. The reason poverty makes the poor suffer is that they struggle to afford basic necessities of life. The price of those necessities is set by how much money the average person has available to spend on them. If you give everyone more money, then the price of food/rent/medicine will just rise accordingly. Just look at what's happening with Bay Area rents. Larry and Sergey having a few billion doesn't materially impact them. Google expanding from 20,000 => 35,000 employees and paying all of them $150K+ does. Now there's someone else who makes just as much as you who's willing to pay a premium for that apartment. The way to drive down the cost of basic necessities is through massive improvements in productivity that suddenly make the supply of a good large enough for everyone to have one. Think of Ford and the automobile, or GE and household appliances, or Apple/Dell/Microsoft/Intel and computers, or the green revolution and food.
nthj 14y ago
Because if I'm rich I can work on what I want to work on, not what the rich guy says I have to work on. [and there are a thousand other reasons that money helps out in life, but I use the above example to show that your argument is self-defeating.]
- webwright 14y ago
  http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.h... (tl;dw: After a brief burst of happiness, wealth has the approximately the same impact on happiness as losing your legs in an accident (i.e. NONE)) http://www.cnbc.com/id/100431776 http://www.cnbc.com/id/100431776 tl;dr the wealthy don't believe that money buys you happiness. http://www.livescience.com/5462-happiness-wealth.html http://www.livescience.com/5462-happiness-wealth.html "Wealth, fame and good looks may be a formula for anxiety rather than happiness, a new study suggests." There's TONS of data on this.
  - nthj 14y ago
    I think we're having a disagreement over our definitions of "wealthy", which makes for a pretty boring debate. After reflection I don't think you're advocating for "work for peanuts! money sucks anyway!" so much as "charging market rate, working sane hours, and being OK with the fact that you won't ever have $10M in the bank is a perfectly sane choice", which I'd absolutely agree with.
dscrd 14y ago
Because people are assholes and the rich can get away with being assholes more easily.

droz 14y ago

Because it makes you a stooge if you don't reap the financial rewards of your labour.

Evbn 14y ago
I hope your pile of money is in bills, as those are softer than coins. Or maybe money isn't your happiness, but merely one means to an end.
webwright 14y ago
What's a stooge? Someone who enjoys their life and the byproduct of that is that someone else gets rich? The point is-- that guy you made rich? You didn't make him happy. You didn't impact his happiness at all (long term). So someone who gets rich on the back of your (rewarding/enjoyable work) isn't getting ANYTHING but shiny objects your monkey brain tells you equal happiness. I pasted these into another comment, but here are some studies around wealth and happiness: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.h... (tl;dw: After a brief burst of happiness, wealth has the approximately the same long-term impact on happiness as losing your legs in an accident (i.e. NONE)) http://www.cnbc.com/id/100431776 http://www.cnbc.com/id/100431776 tl;dr the wealthy don't believe that money buys you happiness. http://www.livescience.com/5462-happiness-wealth.html http://www.livescience.com/5462-happiness-wealth.html "Wealth, fame and good looks may be a formula for anxiety rather than happiness, a new study suggests." There's TONS of data on this.
- ahomescu1 14y ago
  The other guy doesn't just get shiny objects, they also get influence and power over other people, along with freedom to do (mostly) what they want. One very relevant example: you can move to the US and get a green card as an investor, if you invest a six figure amount. This is also true for other Western countries. Money buys you freedom to not work, freedom to live wherever you want, and sometimes it can even buy you laws (or avoidance of existing laws).
  - webwright 14y ago
    Yep. All(most) rich people have lots of power and freedom. Does THAT make them happy? Because all of the data indicates that wealth (and all of its accompanying benefits) do NOT. Note that $ does correlate with happiness on the low end of the scale. i.e. being very poor correlates with unhappiness. But beyond about $75k/yr, no correlation.
    - wildgift 14y ago
      Since wealth won't make the rich happier, but poverty seems to make the poor suffer in very concrete ways (like lacking medical insurance), it would make sense for the poor to be paid better, and the wealthy to have smaller paychecks.
      - nostrademons 14y ago
        It wouldn't actually help. The reason poverty makes the poor suffer is that they struggle to afford basic necessities of life. The price of those necessities is set by how much money the average person has available to spend on them. If you give everyone more money, then the price of food/rent/medicine will just rise accordingly. Just look at what's happening with Bay Area rents. Larry and Sergey having a few billion doesn't materially impact them. Google expanding from 20,000 => 35,000 employees and paying all of them $150K+ does. Now there's someone else who makes just as much as you who's willing to pay a premium for that apartment. The way to drive down the cost of basic necessities is through massive improvements in productivity that suddenly make the supply of a good large enough for everyone to have one. Think of Ford and the automobile, or GE and household appliances, or Apple/Dell/Microsoft/Intel and computers, or the green revolution and food.

nthj 14y ago

Because if I'm rich I can work on what I want to work on, not what the rich guy says I have to work on. [and there are a thousand other reasons that money helps out in life, but I use the above example to show that your argument is self-defeating.]

webwright 14y ago
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.h... (tl;dw: After a brief burst of happiness, wealth has the approximately the same impact on happiness as losing your legs in an accident (i.e. NONE)) http://www.cnbc.com/id/100431776 http://www.cnbc.com/id/100431776 tl;dr the wealthy don't believe that money buys you happiness. http://www.livescience.com/5462-happiness-wealth.html http://www.livescience.com/5462-happiness-wealth.html "Wealth, fame and good looks may be a formula for anxiety rather than happiness, a new study suggests." There's TONS of data on this.
- nthj 14y ago
  I think we're having a disagreement over our definitions of "wealthy", which makes for a pretty boring debate. After reflection I don't think you're advocating for "work for peanuts! money sucks anyway!" so much as "charging market rate, working sane hours, and being OK with the fact that you won't ever have $10M in the bank is a perfectly sane choice", which I'd absolutely agree with.

dscrd 14y ago

Because people are assholes and the rich can get away with being assholes more easily.