re: #247 goddamnedfrank

This study says it is.

What I’m saying isn’t addressed by that paper, which is, if you take person A, currently making $90,000 a year, and you give them $200,000 a year free money, (a lotto win or what have you) they will not actually derive much happiness from it or what they buy from it.

That study can’t possibly be controlling for the other factors that high-income households have— education, friends, professional success, etc. Given that money is an abstraction, I’d say that the status and success is probably what causes happiness, more than the wealth.

However, obviously, wealth can give you opportunities, for education, for high-paying jobs that are also high-status jobs, so it’s highly related.

But I don’t think Glenn Thinks of himself as a success. I think a lot of really rich people never do, and that’s why they keep working like demons, hoping to one day feel that success.