Recent research surveying a much broader set of people, including people in various countries, indicates the exact opposite: the more money, the better. Using data collected by the Gallup organization, economists Betsy Stevenson and Justin Wolfers of the University of Michigan found that people all over the world, from countries including the United States, Mexico, Britain, Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, India, Nigeria, Iran, and Russia, reported greater happiness as they grew richer. More interesting is the finding that the relationship between income and happiness doesn’t change for the very rich. So going from richer to richest increases happiness about as much as moving from the poorest to less poor. The authors say, “The relationship between well-being and income…does not diminish as incomes rise. If there is a satiation point, we are yet to reach it.”
The relationship between happiness and income also seems to be the same whether we look within a given country (i.e., you’re happier if you’re wealthier than your fellow citizens) or between countries (i.e., people from countries with higher per capita gross domestic product levels are happier than those from countries with lower levels).
what do you believe?
It may be that what really makes us happy is leading fulfilling lives. It's not income per se, but it's having a broad set of choices, including the choice to have a healthy income
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