Re:Money can buy happiness
by pyduan on Sunday January 12, 2014 @01:59PM
(#7047002)
This is precisely what Easterlin says: a relative increase in income has little effect on happiness past a certain point. This competing model (the one in the article) says that no, there is no saturation point and there is a logarithmic relationship between income and happiness where the effect of a %age change in income has a constant effect on happiness.
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Re:Money can buy happiness
by auctiontheory on Sunday January 12, 2014 @02:30PM
(#7047098)
It is partly a fixed cost versus variable cost argument, although these guys don't express it that way. (And I realize that fixed isn't really "fixed.")
If you can't afford decent housing, adequate healthcare, and a good education for your kids, of course more money will buy you happiness. And in the US, the income at which you can afford those three ... is high and increasing fast.
I imagine there is a threshold where percentile wealth increases make the ultra-rich happy again. Whenever it grants you a noticeable increase in power and influence to increase your wealth, you kind of want to maximize it to maximize power and influence.
There is just a vast gap between the point where you stop spending money for consumption and when you can start spending money for influence.