Money = Happiness

It’s long been stated that studies show that money doesn’t buy happiness. There’s a famous economic theory called the Easterlin paradox, which is based on data that seem to indicate that when countries get richer, the people get no happier.

This New York Times article discusses a recent economic paper that calls that into question. Their analysis of the data lead them to conclude the following:

1. Rich people are happier than poor people.
2. Richer countries are happier than poorer countries.
3. As countries get richer, they tend to get happier.

Another fascinating claim: “absolute income seems to matter more than relative income.” Meaning, someone who makes less than US$30,000 might not be happier making US$30,000 in another country.

You can find one of the authors discussing this in more detail on the Freakonomics blog. I’m obviously not economically sophisticated enough to assess whether what they say is true. But I’m open-minded enough to consider that they might be. And if so, that kind of depresses me. Could it really be that there’s such a simple relationship between wealth and happiness? For Christians, obviously, I don’t think that’s true; I don’t think how happy we are depends on how much we make. But I had long assumed that it’s not true for non-Christians either, whether they realized it or not. It’s earth-shattering to me to consider that that assumption might be wrong. And it makes me reconsider a host of ideas I have about money and happiness and how that relates to society.