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Some research suggests that happiness vis a vis personal wealth is determined by how much you have relative to your friends.
by fludlight 12y ago
Some research suggests that happiness vis a vis personal wealth is determined by how much you have relative to your friends.
- NewHermes 12y agoThat actually makes a lot of sense. I'll have to look at some studies.
- fludlight 12y agoIf you google my comment[1] you will find it[2-5]. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=research+suggests+that+happiness+vis+a+vis+personal+wealth+is+determined+by+how+much+you+have+relative&oq=research+suggests+that+happiness+vis+a+vis+personal+wealth+is+determined+by+how+much+you+have+relative&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=research+suggests+that+happi... [2] http://www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/trojan_family/winter07/happiness.html http://www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/trojan_family/winter07/happin... [3] http://vanneman.umd.edu/socy699J/GrahamP02.pdf http://vanneman.umd.edu/socy699J/GrahamP02.pdf [4] http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic620591.files/Indices_of_Wellbeing/HSPH.pdf http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic620591.files/Indi... [5] Relative Income Hypothesis. I will leave the googling of this as an exercise for the reader.
- NewHermes 12y agoThanks!
- afterburner 12y agoThat's why even the rich get more annoyed when inequality rises. They see those making more than them pulling away. The knee jerk reactions to this tend to make the problem even worse (eg. lower taxes, justified by reducing social security).
- r00fus 12y agoIn reality this is a problem. When everyone around you is making more, things tend to cost more - e.g. real-estate in silicon valley is atrociously expensive for what you get, so you need a solid dual income or high-earner single income to afford a house - as the aggregate of these go up, your ability to afford a house or an upgrade diminishes.