And this is what every study on this has found. More money does equate to more happiness. Right up to around the point where you have enough to cover all your expenses, save some money, and still have a little left over for hobbies and such.
Once all your basic needs are met comfortably, more money doesn’t really lead to more happiness.
But most people are below that line.
we can calculate a income/expenses for those things, but that doesn’t mean people who are in or above that threshold will feel that way. about how people feel about things is how they measure their happiness.
the COL for my city for ‘stability’ is 70K for one adult. But nobody making that kind of money in my city would ever self-report they are living comfortably, typically the expectation is you make double as a bare minimum, and ‘comfortably’ would be like 3-5x that, and frankly most folks I meet who are making 300K+ love to tell you how uncomfortable and unstable and awful their life is. I’ve never met anyone making 100K+ who said they are stable and happy… other than myself but I’m also considered to be mentally ill because of my attitude about that.
Folks always want more and their subjective expectations will adjust, no matter how much they have, because we experience these things subjectively and for a lot of people ‘happiness’ is measured in terms whether or not you are doing better than your social peers and/or your social expectations are being met.
The rich do have financial stressors. And they will argue with you that their stressors are more stressful than the stressors of the poor, because they are more ‘sophisticated’.
one of the biggest stressors for a rich person is the idea they may be perceived as poor.
and your expenses can always have a larger threshold, hedonistic treadmill and all that.
Only the rich say this and mean it.
They say it because more money doesn’t make them more happy.
Conveniently ignoring they have no financial stressors.
And this is what every study on this has found. More money does equate to more happiness. Right up to around the point where you have enough to cover all your expenses, save some money, and still have a little left over for hobbies and such. Once all your basic needs are met comfortably, more money doesn’t really lead to more happiness. But most people are below that line.
I’d hazard a guess that the only way that it might happen is philanthropy.
objectively or subjectively?
we can calculate a income/expenses for those things, but that doesn’t mean people who are in or above that threshold will feel that way. about how people feel about things is how they measure their happiness.
the COL for my city for ‘stability’ is 70K for one adult. But nobody making that kind of money in my city would ever self-report they are living comfortably, typically the expectation is you make double as a bare minimum, and ‘comfortably’ would be like 3-5x that, and frankly most folks I meet who are making 300K+ love to tell you how uncomfortable and unstable and awful their life is. I’ve never met anyone making 100K+ who said they are stable and happy… other than myself but I’m also considered to be mentally ill because of my attitude about that.
Folks always want more and their subjective expectations will adjust, no matter how much they have, because we experience these things subjectively and for a lot of people ‘happiness’ is measured in terms whether or not you are doing better than your social peers and/or your social expectations are being met.
The rich do have financial stressors. And they will argue with you that their stressors are more stressful than the stressors of the poor, because they are more ‘sophisticated’.
one of the biggest stressors for a rich person is the idea they may be perceived as poor.
and your expenses can always have a larger threshold, hedonistic treadmill and all that.