Study: Money Does Buy Happiness - To a Point

(AP)  They say money can't buy happiness. They're wrong.

At least up to a point.

People's emotional well-being - happiness - increases along with their income up to about $75,000, researchers report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For folks making less than that, said Angus Deaton, an economist at the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University, "Stuff is so in your face it's hard to be happy. It interferes with your enjoyment."

Deaton and Daniel Kahneman reviewed surveys of 450,000 Americans conducted in 2008 and 2009 for the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index that included questions on people's day-to-day happiness and their overall life satisfaction.

Happiness got better as income rose but the effect leveled out at $75,000, Deaton said. On the other hand, their overall sense of success or well-being continued to rise as their earnings grew beyond that point.

"Giving people more income beyond 75K is not going to do much for their daily mood ... but it is going to make them feel they have a better life," Deaton said in an interview.

Not surprisingly, someone who moves from a $100,000-a-year job to one paying $200,000 realizes an improved sense of success. That doesn't necessarily mean they are happier day to day, Deaton said.

The results were similar for other measures, Deaton said. For example, people were really happier on weekends, but their deeper sense of well-being didn't change.

Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winning psychologist, and Deaton undertook the study to learn more about economic growth and policy.

Some have questioned the value of growth to individuals, and Deaton said they were far from definitively resolving that question.

But he added, "Working on this paper has brought me a lot of emotional well-being. As an economist I tend to think money is good for you, and am pleased to find some evidence for that."

Overall, the researchers said, "as in other studies of well-being, we found that most people were quite happy and satisfied with their lives."

Comparing their life-satisfaction results with those of other countries, the researchers said the United States ranked ninth after the Scandinavian countries, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland and New Zealand.

The research was supported by the Gallup Organization and the National Institute on Aging.

[magnumdr]

Sure it can buy happiness, but it is a differant kind of happy that will disappear until the next purchase. I like the kind of happy that comes to me when my Grandchildren come and see me. I feel like a millionaire when they ask if they can have some candy.

[Gamesman001]

All I have to say to this study is "Well Duh!". Most people would be very happy with making over $75k a year. Unfortunately that would mean all those people who thought their 7 figure salaries reflected their true worth (Puh-leeze) would feel immensely cheated as they would have less people to look down their nose at. In America money is the standard all things are measured by whether you agree with it or not. Would anyone have cared if Paris Hilton was poor? Money can buy anything in America even an election that the popular vote said went the other way.

[lloydbest1]

by RatPackSixGun September 6, 2010 9:21 PM EDT

"What's happening in good ole' USA is that the do-nothings and have nothings are being enriched through entitlement programs funded by me in the middle class whilst the upper wealth tiers are simply taking their money offshore and leaving. Bye bye, Miss American Pie."

Unfortunately there is a grain of truth in the last part of that statement. The "haves" and "have mores" are sinking all of their wealth into tax shelters instead of contributing their fair share of the cost of running our society. This means folks like the RatPack and other middle class taxpayers are - relative to their incomes - left with the lion's share of society's burden. One of my gripes about the "Obaminator" is his reluctance or refusal to put the hammer down of these super-rich bloodsuckers.

The first part, however, is gross hyperbole. There are very few "do nothings" and those few and the "have nothings" are not only not getting enriched, they are falling further and further behind. So much so that most will, or have already, stop spending on anything including basic necessities. If something isn't done and soon (like putting them to work at jobs that pay a FAMILY wage) our consumer based economy which is based almost entirely on the financial success and security of the poor and middle class will utterly and completely collapse.

Believe me, you do NOT want to see that.

[RatPackSixGun]

What the article seems to overlook is that after 75K, my tax bracket changed, and at that point instead of simply paying my fair share of taxes, I moved to a 31 - 33% tax bracket. That did not make me happy.

My altruistic, collective love bubble got burst when I started waving goodbye to more than a third of my gross salary to pay for vaccuous federal spending sprees.

What's happening in good ole' USA is that the do-nothings and have nothings are being enriched through entitlement programs funded by me in the middle class whilst the upper wealth tiers are simply taking their money offshore and leaving. Bye bye, Miss American Pie.

CHANGE you can believe in.