Hard to make a decision on how to start this thread.. I could tell the story that I recently bought be a playstation 5 and well it induced some excitement and moments of happiness. (probably because I barely buy expensive products I wanted to buy one for more than 2 years and waited, ruminated and waited. I think this long waiting process really contributed to the good feeling when I had one in my hands).
Of course this is still an hyperbole and contains some form of a joke.
There recenty was a study published on the topic hence the title.
"In the low range of incomes, unhappy people gain more from increased income than happier people do," the researchers wrote. "In other words, the bottom of the happiness distribution rises much faster than the top in that range of incomes. The trend is reversed for higher incomes, where very happy people gain much more from increased income than unhappy people do."
"In the simplest terms, this suggests that for most people larger incomes are associated with greater happiness," says Killingsworth, a senior fellow at Penn's Wharton School and lead paper author. "The exception is people who are financially well-off but unhappy. For instance, if you're rich and miserable, more money won't help. For everyone else, more money was associated with higher happiness to somewhat varying degrees."
Mellers digs into this last notion, noting that emotional well-being and income aren't connected by a single relationship. "The function differs for people with different levels of emotional well-being," she says. Specifically, for the least happy group, happiness rises with income until $100,000, then shows no further increase as income grows. For those in the middle range of emotional well-being, happiness increases linearly with income, and for the happiest group the association actually accelerates above $100,000.
However, he adds that for emotional well-being money isn't the be all end all. "Money is just one of the many determinants of happiness. Money is not the secret to happiness, but it can probably help a bit," he says.
So here my commentary starts again so far my half-knowledge bullshit I usually spread was limited in this thread. My last update on that question was there would be a plateau at rounabout 5k earning within a month. Even if you got more money than that the happniess level barely increases which seems to be not true (at least this is what this study suggests). Personally poverty is one main reason for my future suicide. I think it is still true that money usually has a decreasing utility function. (hard to put in words). I mean by that give someone who earns 30 k a year 100.000 bucks and he will be extremely glad and happy for some time about the amount he got. Give 100.000 dollars to Elon Musk and he won't give a fuck. I think this is how that game works.
For me this plateau theory seemed to be plausible that maybe there is an amount of money where an increase barely makes a difference.
My side notes: I think it is still obvious money can't buy happiness for all of us. Especially not here in this forum. There are heatlh issues and life circumstances where even a billion does not make any difference. Someone recently posted a billionaire committed suicide. And I think this proves money cannot heal all issues. However I think when the governments really would care to decrease suicide numbers they should start to seriously battle poverty. For me and not only for me financial issues are a major reason for suicide. So the saying money can buy you happiness is still an hyperbole. There are many people in this forum who write stuff like I earn 6 figures a year but I still feel emotionally totally empty and extremely unhappy. I don't want to insult people with this thread. It is rather a catchy and interesting title for this thread because the media reported in a similar way.
One more thing. I think having absolutely no money makes people usually unhappy. On the other side such a law does not apply to people with wealth in a similar magitude. I watched a TV show recently. Something interesting was said. The person said new studies show the people in countries with more wealth are on average more happy than people in country wilth less wealth. There might be such a general law studies suggest. There seem to be two exceptions though. People from East europe are too unhappy for their wealth status. Reasons for that might be a traumatizing decline of the Soviet Union. And people in Latin America are too happy for their wealth status. He added there are theories that religiousness might be a reason for that.
What do you think on this issue? (way too short thread I know)
Of course this is still an hyperbole and contains some form of a joke.
There recenty was a study published on the topic hence the title.
- A new study seems to contradict the theory that happiness eventually plateaus as wealth rises.
- It found that for the vast majority of people, money does buy you happiness.
- For a small group of people, their happiness levels off "abruptly" when their income hits $100,000. (roundabout 15-20% of people. The assume reasons for that might be people with grief, sadness because of a love interest, or clinical depression.)
"In the low range of incomes, unhappy people gain more from increased income than happier people do," the researchers wrote. "In other words, the bottom of the happiness distribution rises much faster than the top in that range of incomes. The trend is reversed for higher incomes, where very happy people gain much more from increased income than unhappy people do."
Does more money correlate with greater happiness?
Reconciling previously contradictory results, Matthew Killingsworth and Barbara Mellers of the University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton University’s Daniel Kahneman find that for most people, there’s a steady link between higher happiness and more money. The exception is people who are...
www.eurekalert.org
"In the simplest terms, this suggests that for most people larger incomes are associated with greater happiness," says Killingsworth, a senior fellow at Penn's Wharton School and lead paper author. "The exception is people who are financially well-off but unhappy. For instance, if you're rich and miserable, more money won't help. For everyone else, more money was associated with higher happiness to somewhat varying degrees."
Mellers digs into this last notion, noting that emotional well-being and income aren't connected by a single relationship. "The function differs for people with different levels of emotional well-being," she says. Specifically, for the least happy group, happiness rises with income until $100,000, then shows no further increase as income grows. For those in the middle range of emotional well-being, happiness increases linearly with income, and for the happiest group the association actually accelerates above $100,000.
However, he adds that for emotional well-being money isn't the be all end all. "Money is just one of the many determinants of happiness. Money is not the secret to happiness, but it can probably help a bit," he says.
So here my commentary starts again so far my half-knowledge bullshit I usually spread was limited in this thread. My last update on that question was there would be a plateau at rounabout 5k earning within a month. Even if you got more money than that the happniess level barely increases which seems to be not true (at least this is what this study suggests). Personally poverty is one main reason for my future suicide. I think it is still true that money usually has a decreasing utility function. (hard to put in words). I mean by that give someone who earns 30 k a year 100.000 bucks and he will be extremely glad and happy for some time about the amount he got. Give 100.000 dollars to Elon Musk and he won't give a fuck. I think this is how that game works.
For me this plateau theory seemed to be plausible that maybe there is an amount of money where an increase barely makes a difference.
My side notes: I think it is still obvious money can't buy happiness for all of us. Especially not here in this forum. There are heatlh issues and life circumstances where even a billion does not make any difference. Someone recently posted a billionaire committed suicide. And I think this proves money cannot heal all issues. However I think when the governments really would care to decrease suicide numbers they should start to seriously battle poverty. For me and not only for me financial issues are a major reason for suicide. So the saying money can buy you happiness is still an hyperbole. There are many people in this forum who write stuff like I earn 6 figures a year but I still feel emotionally totally empty and extremely unhappy. I don't want to insult people with this thread. It is rather a catchy and interesting title for this thread because the media reported in a similar way.
One more thing. I think having absolutely no money makes people usually unhappy. On the other side such a law does not apply to people with wealth in a similar magitude. I watched a TV show recently. Something interesting was said. The person said new studies show the people in countries with more wealth are on average more happy than people in country wilth less wealth. There might be such a general law studies suggest. There seem to be two exceptions though. People from East europe are too unhappy for their wealth status. Reasons for that might be a traumatizing decline of the Soviet Union. And people in Latin America are too happy for their wealth status. He added there are theories that religiousness might be a reason for that.
What do you think on this issue? (way too short thread I know)
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