According to a study from economist Angus Deaton and famed psychologist Daniel Kahneman, there is an income level at which happiness plateaus:
“The magic income: $75,000 a year. As people earn more money, their day-to-day happiness rises. Until you hit $75,000. After that, it is just more stuff, with no gain in happiness.
That doesn’t mean wealthy and ultrawealthy are equally happy. More money does boost people’s life assessment, all the way up the income ladder. People who earned $160,000 a year, for instance, reported more overall satisfaction than people earning $120,000, and so on.”
It is either a very interesting finding or the result of a socialist agenda. I do buy into the notion that many people are only happy with their socioeconomic status as long as they perceive themselves as better off than the people they see around them. For example, you can live in a million dollar house and have a nice salary, but if you have a $20M house with a helipad across the street your relative happiness will be less than the guy making $90,000 in a city with an average income of $40,000.
