Will Wilkinson - Latest Comments in More Money, More Happy, Again

Re: More Money, More Happy, Again

Lee Malatesta — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:44:36 -0000

The paper doesn't appear to say that more money means more happiness. It says that countries with a higher GDP have less pain and more pleasure. This isn't an argument that money causes happiness but that poverty causes misery as, presumably, the higher the GDP of a nation, the smaller proportion of its populace will be living in abject poverty. Further, one would expect that nations with higher GDPs would have more money to invest in health and safety infrastructure and, consequently, have fewer external events which lead to not being happy.

But to say more than that, to say that more money causes more happiness, you would have to compare happiness at the margins rather than comparing entire the entire GDP of a country. Are families (or individuals) who are alike in all other ways happier at a household income of 110 thousand than at 105 thousand? 120? 130? If so, is there a point at which the increase of happiness stops?

In fact, a quick scan of the recent news points to another study where according to the authors, once you crack six figures money loses its ability to reliably raise wellbeing and does not increase in line with increasing income".

This idea has been around since the ancient Greeks. To be happy, Plato suggested, you need a sufficient amount of money but once you have too much money you face the danger of actually diminishing your happiness.

Re: More Money, More Happy, Again

edwardseco — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:28:02 -0000

Bad link..

Re: More Money, More Happy, Again

Flipp — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:22:53 -0000

It seems rather obviuous that money make people happier to at least some degree. It is more intresting to sort out how strong the effect from money is compared to other factors.

Re: More Money, More Happy, Again

GU — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:15:44 -0000

So, the key to raising gross national happiness is the government distributing massive amounts of money to the people. Print it up and ship it out! What are we waiting for?!?!?!?!

Re: More Money, More Happy, Again

Jaap Weel — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:43:09 -0000

First of all, I want to say that the hypothesis that (ceteris paribus) money makes people happier seems entirely reasonable to me. But when there's another paper showing the association, that isn't automatically evidence. You have to consider the possibility that happy people go on to make more money rather than vice versa. After all, extremely unhappy people are what is otherwise known as "depressed," and depression is not exactly conducive to the sort of long-term goal-oriented behavior that tends to be required if you want to become wealthy in a typical civilized society.