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How much money do people need to be happy?

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Re: How much money do people need to be happy?

#121

Post by hinkley »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #98
derekp7 wrote: post #4

Is this net income (after taxes, and possibly after 401k [or equivalent] savings)? I would say that having no debt, or at least having manageable debt, along with knowing you are saving enough for retirement, and making enough that you don't have to second-guess if you can afford every purchase you make, is the real cutoff. For example, if you don't have mortgage debt then you are probably renting. So I consider mort…

I would not be surprised if you were exactly right with this: I would say that having no debt, or at least having manageable debt, along with knowing you are saving enough for retirement, and making enough that you don't have to second-guess if you can afford every purchase you make, is the real cutoff. Many people I have talked with about happiness are really talking about non-anxiety. Basically defining being 'happ…

I feel like there’s some Maslow’s heirarchy things going on here. Once you get over the non destitute thing you can spend your energy on being fulfilled.

Re: How much money do people need to be happy?

#122

Post by matte_black »

tachyoff wrote: post #106
ChuckMcM wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not be surprised if you were exactly right with this: I would say that having no debt, or at least having manageable debt, along with knowing you are saving enough for retirement, and making enough that you don't have to second-guess if you can afford every purchase you make, is the real cutoff. Many people I have talked with about happiness are really talking about non-anxiety. Basically defining being 'happ…

What a sad indictment of modern American life that our baseline for happiness is "not destitute". Really, I think that's telling, and as a millennial with lots of student loan debt and friends in a similar boat, it's not surprising one bit.

Why should it be any higher?

Raise the baseline too high and you may never reach it, and never be happy, despite having a good life. Is that what you want?

Re: How much money do people need to be happy?

#123

Post by ntsplnkv2 »

ppeetteerr wrote: post #73

If you look at the happiness income in East Asia, you'll note it's higher than in the US. This indicates that the value is not absolute (things you need to be happy) but it's relative to the area. The best indicator of happiness related to income I have seen concluded that the income is relative to the income of your peers: if they make more money, you will be less happy, if they make less, you will be more happy. Th…

Do people really care that much about the people they're around?

I've always wanted nicer things-not because I have to compete with my neighbor, though...

Re: How much money do people need to be happy?

#124

Post by ThrustVectoring »

Qwertious wrote: post #100
tasuki wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with most of your points! Just one thing: you don't need a "buy/rent a jet" income to not have to commute to work daily. Retiring early appears to be surprisingly easy with decent income and good spending habits. Taking a year or two off even more so. Eg with the 80k (the more expensive car you mentioned), you can live handsomely for 4+ years in South-East Asia or Eastern Europe.

>Just one thing: you don't need a "buy/rent a jet" income to not have to commute to work daily $3mil let's you live on $50k/year for 60 years. And realistically, more than that due to interest - 2% of 3mil is 60k, so if you have it well-invested you could live off it with $50k/yr indefinitely.

The amount of principle required to sustain $1 of annual real consumption in perpetuity costs between $25 and $35. $50 is far beyond enough - you'll die with far more money than you started with.

Re: How much money do people need to be happy?

#125

Post by tachyoff »

matte_black wrote: post #122
tachyoff wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a sad indictment of modern American life that our baseline for happiness is "not destitute". Really, I think that's telling, and as a millennial with lots of student loan debt and friends in a similar boat, it's not surprising one bit.

Why should it be any higher? Raise the baseline too high and you may never reach it, and never be happy, despite having a good life. Is that what you want?

> Why should it be any higher?

Because it can be. Because we’re the richest country in the world and yet for some reason we force people into bankruptcy because they didn’t have health insurance on the day they had a medical emergency.

I want:

1. People not to have to worry about seeing a doctor because they can’t afford it.

2. People not to have to worry about having shelter.

3. People not to have to worry about where their next meal will come from.

4. People to be able to provide a solid, basic, decent life for themselves and their families.

5. People to be able receive an education without it being onerously expensive.

Among other things.

I don’t think these are intractable problems for a civilization that sent people to the moon, perform open heart surgery, and deliver energy consistently and safely to millions of people.

Re: How much money do people need to be happy?

#126

Post by aidenn0 »

Xcelerate wrote: post #111
aidenn0 wrote: post #20

I've seen it suggested elsewhere that there is no saturation point, it's just that the relationship is logarithmic, and truncated logarithmic datasets look asymptotic.

> I've seen it suggested elsewhere that there is no saturation point, it's just that the relationship is logarithmic, and truncated logarithmic datasets look asymptotic. If it's truly a logarithmic relationship (rather than asymptotic), this would imply that billionaires are an order of magnitude happier than everyone else.

The base of the logarithm does matter, but assuming base 10, a billionaire with an income of say $100M dollars would be 4 times happier than someone with $10k per year income which is pretty close to the floor in the US.

Re: How much money do people need to be happy?

#127

Post by robotresearcher »

koolba wrote: post #75
robotresearcher wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Folding laundry. Robots are miserably bad at this, so far.

Robots? Assuming you already have 7+ days worth of clothes simply hire a maid to come by once a week. With a human you never have to worry about software upgrades, charging batteries, or wake up in a cold sweat in fear of your hired help violating Isaac Asimov's laws of robotics.

The question was “why can’t you automate it?”.
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