This "relative deprivation" concept, to me sounds like a more elegant way of speaking about "envy". "The grass is greener in our neighbor lawn". Perhaps I'm very minimalist in my needs and therefore I cannot empathize with people that feel that relative deprivation, and that's why I question it.

From the article: > Relative poverty, an important but often neglected policy target, is measured by the resources needed to maintain the social and economic lifestyle that is widely accepted by the society in which one lives,

Who is "the society"? This sounds like saying that people feel bad when others have something they don't have, even if they aren't poor. Should everyone have the same? Trying to achieve that never worked. That may work only when thanks to technological advancements we reach a post-scarcity economy, I believe.

From the article: > A large empirical evidence base for most countries suggests that low socio-economic status and resulting feelings of relative deprivation lower both objective and subjective well-being, as measured by indicators such as health and happiness.

Feeling envy lowers well-being, yes.