Not if you are a miserable bastard to begin with.
The Guardian did a small survey to find out if people felt rich or poor, and the ensuing article is well worth a read.
There are some interesting insights into how people view their housing, like the PR from Surrey who says "Considering my husband works 6.30am - 0pm, and I'm also working three days a week, you'd expect to have your own home." A nice piece of Home-Owner-Ist propaganda there, that a rented house is not your home.
A great comment also from a London PA "Somebody did a study and the conclusion was, if you live in the best house in a shit street, you feel much happier than if you live in an objectively much nicer house but it's the smallest one in a nice area. That's something I think about a lot. It may be part of why I feel happy with my life."
It's also interesting how many of the responders are mortgaged to the hilt - Ricardo's law in action. Generally, though, it does show that richness or poverty tend to have as much to do with attitude of mind as it does with actual income, although not living beyond your means has a lot to do with not feeling poor.
Monday, 17 September 2012
Money can't buy you happiness
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14 comments:
If I could convince everyone who thinks "money can't buy you happiness" to send me 10 quid, I'd certainly be a lot happier.
"not living beyond your means has a lot to do with not feeling poor."
I agree. We worked that out after our first and last car loan. Never again.
I think I'm generally libertarian, but I do think that people should have a debt license that shows they can work out the costs of compound interest before they are allowed to borrow.
RA, ... and then send all your moneys to me as a control experiment.
AKH, neither a borrower nor a lender be.
SB, alternatively, make bankruptcy law so lenient on the debtor that banks will pay a bit more attention who they lend to.
Well that's wonderful that you're guestposting. Not enough of it about these days.
Master vs Slave mindset in full swing.
Even young people are captured by it. They always defend parents.
"They always defend parents"
Isn't that the fifth Commandment?
The London PA is wrong. To quote Steve Sailer - the best thing about being well off is that you don't have to live beside poor people. I suspect the PA is not living in an area where the neighbors include council problem families, unemployed with or without criminal records or even large families.
I would say that it does and it doesn't buy you happiness, depending on circumstances.
As far as I can see the first £15,000 p.a buys a lot of happiness no matter who you are. The second £15,000 p.a. buys almost the same amount for most people. The third buys less unless you have really expensive tastes and beyond that it's diminishing returns all the way.
"The London PA is wrong."
Mind you, I liked her idea about what she'd do if she won the Euromillions - have a baby. Good feminist thinking there.
JH, indeed not.
RS, agreed,
B, the fifth amendment doesn't say you can shit on and exploit your children, this whole 'respect' thing is a two way street.
NC: "the best thing about being well off is that you don't have to live beside poor people."
Correct, which makes Land Value Tax self-reinforcing, rich people will pay it just to a) be away from what they perceive as riff raff and b) show off how rich they are. Which funds the welfare payments to the less well off - everybody's happy :-)
D, yes, diminishing returns, I think the scale is quite extreme, beyond any sensible basic lifestyle, for ten times the expense you only get double the happiness.
B, if that's what makes her happy, what's the problem?
One of the other blogs I read, Mr Money Mustache,has a good handle on this. His blog topic is "Becoming Financially Independent ASAP". He makes the point that you can become richer by earning more or by wanting less, and while he doesn't recommend going all the way down to "Buddhist monk" levels, he does point out that most people are extremely wasteful spenders. So it doesn't really matter how much they earn: it'll get spent.
Hence most people think that they're poorer than they really are.
In other words spending down, happiness unchanged. Thus demonstrating what a sensible chap you are.
"what's the problem?"
No problem, I liked her refreshingly fundamentalist feminist attitude - who needs a man if you have money?
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