Does money buy happiness? Until very recently, the surprising consensus among economists was that no, it does not. At least, not beyond a certain level needed to secure the most basic needs of food, shelter and care.

Maybe happiness is air conditioning and a big TV… Illustration: Paul Newman

Beyond that, as countries get richer they don’t necessarily get happier, the theory goes, because happiness is a relative concept. It’s not the amount of money you have that makes you happy, but whether you have more money relative to other people.

You only get happier if you beat the Jones’s, or at the very least keep up with them. Happiness, on this account, is a zero sums game - with gains for one person only coming at the expense of another. The idea dates back to a seminal paper published in 1974 by a US economist, Richard Easterlin, titled “Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot?”

In it, Easterlin confirmed the obvious: that within the same country, rich people are happier than poor people. But when Easterlin looked across countries for evidence that richer countries were happier than poor countries, he couldn’t find it.

Countries had the same average levels of happiness, despite their absolute income levels. The “Easterlin paradox” was born: the idea that higher income does not necessarily buy higher happiness.

US psychologist Daniel Kahneman has called it the “hedonic treadmill” – that we all work harder and harder, buying more cars, bigger TVs, bigger houses, but because everyone else is buying those things too, we never get happier. After a certain income point – measured as being about $US75,000 in the United States - every extra dollar earned has no impact on boosting wellbeing.

But groundbreaking new research by a trio of American academic economists Daniel Sacks, Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, has turned the theory on its head.

Drawing on newer and bigger data, including the Gallup World Poll of citizens in 122 countries, the economists have proved what many non economists had always suspected. That yes, money can buy you happiness. Finally, some good news from the dismal science.

In their paper “The New Stylized Facts about Income and Subjective Well-Being” the trio find there is, in fact, a strong correlation between countries absolute levels of gross domestic product per capita (a measure of income) and their levels of self-reported well-being.

The Gallop World Poll asks people to imagine a ladder with 10 rungs, with the top rung representing “the best possible life for you” and the bottom “the worst possible life for you”. It then asks people to describe which rung they are on now.

In countries like Tanzania and Zimbabwe, the average person is struggling to get off the 3rd or 4th rung. In wealthier countries, like Denmark and Qatar, people perceive themselves, on average, to be on about the seventh rung.

Unlike Easterlin’s paper, which surveyed fewer countries over a shorter time period, the new data confirms that people living in rich countries are, on average, happier than people living in poor countries.

Perhaps one to file the heading: “things poor people know that rich people have spent a lot of time scratching their heads about.”

Furthermore, the economists find that income growth, provided it is fairly evenly distributed, makes populations happier over time.


There is no “happiness plateau” - an income point beyond which extra money has no impact on happiness. Rather, every pay rise makes you happier. But the returns diminish the higher up the income chain you go. Say you got a pay rise from $50,000 to $100,000, it would take another pay rise to $200,000 to buy as much happiness as the first.

So why does money buy happiness?

More money brings with it an increased sense of financial security that psychologists have found is very important to our sense of well-being.

But in its most obvious sense, money is also just a means to an end; it gives us the ability to consume more.

To the extent that incomes rise faster than the cost of buying things, we are able to improve our standard of living. The bigger TVs, bigger houses and multiple cars make us happier because we enjoy consuming them.

“We find that average global well-being has grown with the global economy,” conclude Sacks, Stevenson and Wolfers.

The process of industrialisation has brought with it the highest levels of material comfort ever seen. And as US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke observed yesterday, the rapid industrialisation of poor countries like China and India is the best anti-poverty strategy mankind has come up with so far.

What if, for all the uncertainty in this world, the current generation of humans living on earth, enjoying the highest levels of income ever amassed, are in fact happier than any generation before us?

For Australians, living in a relatively rich country enjoying real income growth, could it be that the best time to have lived is, in fact, right here and right now?

Jessica Irvine is National Economics Editor. Email: Twitter: @Jess_Irvine

Comments on this post will close at 8pm AEDT.

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    • fml says:

      07:15am | 16/01/13

      Money may not buy happiness but, I would rather be rich and unhappy than poor and unhappy…

    • Upnorff says:

      08:55am | 16/01/13

      Verily. I’ll taske my chances with being miserably rich too, thanks. At least I would be able to afford plenty of distractions!
      Cue Fiddler on the Roof:
      If I was a biddy biddy rich, deeble deidle digger deiger man…

    • Stephen T says:

      09:02am | 16/01/13

      @fml: Don’t agree I’m afraid, poor and unhappy at least has the hope that they may attain happiness through increased means, rich and unhappy has everything and nothing.

    • Meph says:

      09:43am | 16/01/13

      @Stephen T

      Speak for yourself. I’d rather be depressed about the potential for new seasons of keeping up with the kardashians and the block on my big screen tv than worrying about where my next meal might come from, and how to keep the rain from destroying my nice one bedroom cardboard box.

      First world problems indeed!

    • Jeremy says:

      09:55am | 16/01/13

      @ Stephen T - If you’re rich and unhappy you can give everything away, live in a tree and experience some kind of simple spiritual awakening, finding happiness through transcending the mortal plane.
      p.s. I wouldn’t, I’d stay rich and unhappy.

    • fml says:

      09:55am | 16/01/13


      Well the way I figure it, with money we are able to dedicate more time to activities we actually want to do. Travel the world? Work six months for a charity in Africa? Start up a charity of your own? Go and study again to become an Archaeologist? All this without the distractions of bills, mortgage, work and a boss/employer who under appreciates your work and is getting richer off your sweat and hard work.

      Hope is good, but with wealth you can busy yourself. Don’t need too much mind, Just enough :p

    • lower_case_andrew says:

      10:09am | 16/01/13

      @Stephen T

      “Don’t agree I’m afraid, poor and unhappy at least…”

      Try being poor and unhappy some time.  Then get back to us. Your tune will have changed.

      There’s nothing noble, uplifting or empowering about being poor.

    • Stephen T says:

      10:17am | 16/01/13

      Lol, I’ve always found the more money I’ve had the more ways people find to take it off me, if its not Ex-Wives its the Tax office, I’d count that as one of the major reasons of unhappiness, just look at Nathan Tinklerfor an example soon to be neither happy or rich.

    • Swingdog says:

      10:51am | 16/01/13


      I’m sure this is what lots of rich people are doing…...

    • fml says:

      11:08am | 16/01/13

      “I’m sure this is what lots of rich people are doing…... “

      Most people would of understood the context, which is that you can do as you wish….

    • lower_case_andrew says:

      11:37am | 16/01/13


      Bill Gates’s and Warren Buffet’s billions are, as we speak, being used to help hundreds of thousands of people.

      Without their money—yes THEIR money—there are people living today who would not be.  There are people

      So the next time you have a swing at some vague group of “rich”, maybe compare.  What have YOU done with your money lately?

      Have YOU saved anyone’s life lately? How about thousands of people’s lives?

      Because I know some some people who aren’t rich, but aren’t doing badly; and they spend more of their TIME and their money helping other people, than most of their small community put together.

      It’s easy to moan about the “rich”.  But that ignores the great philanthropy that many rich people engage in.

    • Maffew87 says:

      03:24pm | 16/01/13

      Money is just a factor of happiness there are other forms of happiness out there. Also this article is naive because countries are still coming out of the financial crises therefore money not only can buy happiness but can buy unhappiness too. If money can truly buy happiness then why are politicians corrupt?.....this article didn’t bother to look at the banana republics and the South American ones too who managed buy rich shallow politicians.

      Not to mention even in rich countries there’s always a group of workers going on strike to demand a pay rise because rich businesses do take advantage of them.

      Lastly the greatest aristocracy to your well being is your mind. it’s your mind that can actually lead you to well being if you know how to use it properly. And that’s something money can’t buy

    • Dave C says:

      08:03am | 16/01/13

      Money cant necessarily make you happy. But what it does do is solve problems that solve unhappiness. People with money dont have the stress and problems that people without money have, people with money are not necessarily happier but they sure are less unhappy and less stressed that those who have to budget and dont have the money when something goes wrong. 

      Example, your car breaks down and has been breaking down repeatedly, solution buy a new car. The same can be said for a dishwasher or washing machine or computer or the air conditioning in the house. By the way, the house gets flooded, no problem go and rent and then go and build a new house with an unlimited budget and go and but all new furniture. The same if there is a fire and it takes everything.

      The only real sadness that money cant solve is if you have a non treatable and/or non curable health condition (all the money in the world wont help a dieing cancer patient or someone injured severely in an accident)  and it cant buy you love and respect of others. But apart from those two things money can solve almost any problem that life throws at you.

    • Sarah Jane says:

      01:21pm | 16/01/13

      Even with an incurable, but not terminal, illness money can bring you happiness through better healthcare & support & infrastructure to improve your life.

    • acotrel says:

      05:13pm | 16/01/13

      If you can’t pay your hospital bills in America, they either call a taxi for you or simply push you out the door onto the street.  I’m happy I live in Australia where you don’t need heaps of money to be happy.
      Signed :
      S McDuck

    • Geronimo says:

      08:13am | 16/01/13

      There is no need to tantalize the “gotta have one” Troppo Bloggosphere with your priorities, just show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.

    • Keith says:

      08:18am | 16/01/13

      I maintain that money doesn’t buy happiness. A lack of money however, directly causes unhappiness. But I agree with the last point: right here and now really is the best time.

    • Keen Observer says:

      09:42am | 16/01/13

      So money doesn’t buy happiness but no money causes unhappiness….contradict yourself much?

    • Meph says:

      10:12am | 16/01/13

      @Keen Observer

      You kinda missed the point. Happiness is an abstract emotional construct. Keith is right in his own way, you can’t buy a concept as such, but what you can buy are a whole lot of things that will feed it. conversely a distinct lack of money will stop you from buying things that you really need to survive, so you tend to feed the ugly step sister of happiness.

      Personally I think the lack of happiness from having near unlimited wealth is purely brought on by people not being honest with themselves. If people were truly honest and bought things that were truly meaningful, rather than blowing it all on status symbols, they might find that happiness isn’t as costly as some think.

    • Keith says:

      01:04pm | 16/01/13

      @Keen Observer

      I don’t think it’s contradictory. Put it this way: having money allows you to buy the things you want/need, but usually results with us simply wanting more; it’s power to please us doesn’t last long. Not having enough money however will almost always cause unhappiness because you simply can’t buy the things that you want/need, and that feeling lasts much longer.

    • Colin says:

      08:32am | 16/01/13


      Yes, absolutely.

      We live comfortable, happy lives with few real worries and plenty of leisure time, personal satisfaction, and disposable income. Our children are well-educated, well-adjusted, and have a bright future.

      We do not scrounge for scraps at the garbage tip, we do not eat just one meal a day, we do not have rags for clothes, we are not under the threat of assault or murder at the hands of the military, the police, or quasi-government thugs, we do not have virulent diseases that become endemic because there is no healthcare…

      Australians are - far and away - really living at the best time that they possibly could.

    • Phil says:

      08:39am | 16/01/13

      Oh wow, another article in the mainstream media telling us that we have to have more than we need to be happy. To go with the article published last week telling us working longer hours is a good thing.  Evidently the corporate bosses aren’t getting the productivity and profit they desire so are using their media arms to remind us just how much we need them and should work longer and harder for them.

    • chris says:

      04:38pm | 16/01/13

      I also worry about the side effects of all this time spent earning money to buy happiness through the acquisition of bigger and better everything that opens and shuts. 
      Cue: child care and divorce lawyers.

    • encee says:

      08:45am | 16/01/13

      Money can certainly change your state of mind when it comes to happy vs unhappy.

      As FML said, I would rather have money and have my problems than be stone cold broke and have the same problems.

    • Victoria says:

      08:48am | 16/01/13

      Surely a large part of the equation is job security, rather than income alone? Being a casual employee on a higher wage would be more stressful than a permanent, full time employee with a company car?

    • AdamC says:

      08:49am | 16/01/13

      I love studies that manage to academically demonstrate the bleeding obvious. Others may see this as a wasteful, but I do not. In this case, for example, we now have solid research to debunk the oft-made, nonsensical claim that economic growth and development do not improve our subjective wellbeing, along with our material living standards. The authors of this study deserve our thanks.

      I also agree with Jessica’s dimishing marginal return from payrises theory. In my case, my income doubled over a period of about three years as I went from being a lowly graduate to having a fairly well-remunerated position in my organisation. It was great. It definitely improved my subjective and material wellbeing. I could eat out more, buy a decent unit and splash out on stuff I wanted (clothes, games, books, etc) without having to worry too much about ruining the budget.

      Since then, my income has risen more incrementally. Which is nice, but it hasn’t really changed my lifestyle a great deal.

    • JTO says:

      09:47am | 16/01/13

      I’ve always wanted to start the “Bleeding Obvious Research Company”. I’ll produce research such as “Not paying attention when crossing the road increases your risk of being hit by a car”, and “Less financial stress makes people happier”. I’ll undercut all the current companies because I won’t do any “actual” research, just state the bleeding obvious. Easy money. Anyone else in? There’s plenty to go around.

    • Tubesteak says:

      01:07pm | 16/01/13

      Bleeding Obvious Research Group
      That way the acronym is “BORG” and that is cool.

    • 7 of 6 says:

      04:42pm | 16/01/13

      Resistance is futile.  You will be assimilated

    • SMK says:

      08:53am | 16/01/13

      Money can not buy happiness, but it can rent it.

    • Rebecca says:

      01:44pm | 16/01/13

      Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it buys ice cream, which is kind of the same thing.

    • Philosopher says:

      02:27pm | 16/01/13

      SMK, and look where that little adage got Craig Thompson.

    • SMK says:

      08:53am | 16/01/13

      Money can not buy happiness, but it can rent it.

    • Disgruntled Goat says:

      08:58am | 16/01/13

      Money in of itself cannot provide any moods of happiness or depression I think the term that applies here is Financial Stability.

      Financial Stability does buy happiness, the ability to easily pay living costs, buy nice things, the ability to fund activities you like eg say a fishing trip or holidaying overseas or anything else you can think of, F.S simply increases the quality of life to ones self, their relationships and family.
      Tell me who is going to be happier the family who has to eat 2 minute noodles because their power bill is due or the family who could afford their power bill and are having at least meat and 3 veg?

      Lets not forget being in a stable financial position makes it much easier to secure a mate thus not being lonely. (lets be honest people do evaluate a persons financial position when committing to a relationship!)

    • Mikka says:

      09:28am | 16/01/13

      Back in my student days I delivered a pizza to a waterfront mansion, the owner came to the door in his stubbies and singlet and I commented that he had a beautiful home - he said ‘I f*cking hate it’. So I asked him why and he tells me that he and his wife won the lottery, so he moved out of the lower income area that he lived in to the mansion but soon after it all started to go wrong - his wife left him, all of his mates deserted him as they wanted him to share his winnings and so he said he sits alone in the house in the dark watching television. I process this tragic story and thinking of something to say I respond ‘That’ll be $19.90 thanks’....

    • Piper says:

      09:57am | 16/01/13

      Completely agree.

      Money, indeed, leads to a “sense of financial security ..... [that] is very important to our sense of well-being.”

      While ‘some’ money secures our need for food, shelter and care, ‘more’ money provides us with the ‘freedom to choose’ (e.g. we can decide “which” kind of food, shelter and care to have).

      Also, from a psychological point of view, it takes away —or at least, alleviates to a great extent—the pressure of wondering how to pay for household bills and securing one’s basic needs. 

      The peace of mind money grants is a rare commodity in dire financial times ...

    • Disgruntled Goat says:

      10:13am | 16/01/13

      @ Mikka hahaha! Ah the old case of lottery fail, I personally wouldn’t buy a waterfront mansion, I would upgrade to actually owning a home, granted it wouldn’t be small but it would be modest and nice. Plus I would lie for years to people saying I landed a high paying job being I.T skilled all I need to do is say buzzwords like datacentre, cloud services and what not and people will believe it and just pretend I have a major mortgage (hence the house)

      Plus surly if this guy is that rich can’t he develop hobbies?, I know if I was a lotto winner I would take up Photography and Videography as time consuming hobbies, hell I might even skill up enough to make a living out of it hahaha!

      But yeah some people will fall into the trap of Oh I won millions so now I must live the waterfront yacht owning upper class lifestyle, people like that are doing it wrong.

    • John says:

      08:59am | 16/01/13

      Happiness is all about be free.  Going to work is form of slavery causing unhappiness. I’ve come to conclusion the best one can be happy is buy a home and have it paided off and live by you self, keep away destructive people who threaten such happiness, eg materialistic people, spending addicts.

      I’m looking at my current future, bubble house prices, increasing rent this making me goal of happiness out of reach. If only I had 250k I could liberate my self from being a rent slave and mortgage slave by buying some cheap down run house, I could breath in peace I won’t have to pay crazy rent prices and have huge debt.

      The system feeds off me, in order to pro up the upper class wealth.
      The bankers, they expect me to get a credit card take out debt, pay rent for the rest of my life, work 9 to 5, going out drinking on Saturday spending my weekly pay check and buy new car on credit and new iphone. Then on Monday I am supposed to have 0 dollar in my bank account. This what the bankers and the government have planned for the under-class’s.

      This is what I say to the bankers and the government, “here have the finger”, I will save every dam cent, with up-most iron vigor non to man, I will free my self from their engineered capitalistic slavery system. I will cut spending entirely, there will be no spending like you would like. The word spending has been removed from the dictionary, and replaced with contained and never to be spend. It will only be used when the day comes to buying the key to freedom from this capitalistic concentration camp that sucks the life and soul of a human being and makes him or her lifeless. Society needs be freeded from this slavery.

    • Chopper knows says:

      09:17am | 16/01/13

      John are you Jewish?

    • Al says:

      09:20am | 16/01/13

      John - the funniest thing about your rant is that it actualy agrees with the article.
      To achieve your version of happiness requires you to have money.
      What others expect you to do is irrelevant, it is always your choice as to how you spend your money, and you must accept the consequences of those choices (such as buying on credit, buying luxuries like going drinking, buying a new car/phone, buying a house or property).
      If you are so insitent on being ‘free’ then you can always go and live in the bush leading a hunter gatherer lifestyle, no tax, no costs. Obviously you don’t want this though.

    • fml says:

      09:25am | 16/01/13

      “slavery was never abolished; it was just spread out to all the races.”

      Charles Bukowski: Commenting on working for the “man”

    • Guyperson says:

      09:40am | 16/01/13

      Pfft you think living in today’s work environment society is slavery? You ain’t in a field picking cotton for no pay, getting whipped, lynched, having your children feed to gators, sleeping in a barn eating pig feet and intestines to survive, while your wife is traded off to other farms to breed more slaves.

      While you complain about society on a computer, in your house, with the ability and means to make any choice you want in life.  With non of these threats to you.  Complaining about ““da man’” holding you down.

      Grow up.

    • Kel says:

      09:43am | 16/01/13

      Yes John, money buys you freedom. Freedom to choose how you live your life. We worked hard and saved and are mortgage and debt free. That is freedom. We don’t have to worry about losing our home. It’s not a grand home, in fact it’s very ordinary. But it’s ours and nobody can take it away. Except the council I suppose if we don’t pay our rates, but we pay all our bills on time.

      I see others around me living in fear. Of losing their home, their job - which may lead to them losing their home. Credit card bills, unpaid utility bills you name it. I went through all that in a previous relationship and it was shit.

      My husband and I have only just got a credit card at ages 45 and 53 but only because we’ve been treated like lepers by car hire companies and motels when we travel because we only had visa debit cards. I had one bloke blurt out ‘what do you mean you don’t have a credit card?’ like we were freaks. We’ve never needed or wanted them. And it will sit in our wallets unless needed. We got a no annual fee one so the bank will be making no money out of us whatsoever.

      I’ve seen the life my mother and father lived because they were poor. Yes it’s the simple things in life that are important but if you can’t meet the cost of your basic needs you’ll be as miserable as shit.

    • sunny says:

      09:44am | 16/01/13

      “Happiness is all about be free.  Going to work is form of slavery causing unhappiness.”

      Some people get a lot out of work - I know that on days when I’ve got a lot of stuff done I feel content and will sleep better that night. I can’t imagine not working and I reckon I’ll be like one of those people who doesn’t ever retire. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy holidays but after a week or two I’m looking forward to getting back to work.

    • John says:

      09:57am | 16/01/13

      Chopper, I’m a Christian Catholic follower of Jesus


      My point is that happiness requires a certain about of wealth. If one looks at what human being needs 1. Is Shelter and 2. is Food. In the society we live in you are either forced to rent out shelter or buy shelter, for some reason, it’s very expensive. Why should a human being spending all his life paying for shelter or wasting 30 years of his live paying for shelter.

      It’s the most insane society, I could be enjoying music, arts, traveling, exercise, sleeping in, exploring mars but no I can’t do this, because I need to spend my entire life paying for shelter or paying a mortgage for shelter.

    • JTO says:

      10:21am | 16/01/13

      Ok. Work is slavery. We all agree that slavery is bad, so let’s abolish slavery. Now… who’d buying my dinner?

    • John says:

      10:29am | 16/01/13


      Africans American don’t have a patent on slavery or racism.
      Slavery has been suffered by everyone including westerners and racism is suffered by every race on this planet including white people.

    • John says:

      10:42am | 16/01/13


      Well, That’s because you trapped in the cycle, your used that, you fear change. I’ve always though people lost themselves in word, they lost who they were, when they lose their jobs, they are directionless, have no idea who they are.

      I rebelled against the 9 - 5pm, in my younger days, it was very courageous, I said to my self this is not living. The feeling was like getting out of a prison and enjoying nature and find my self and understanding what is being, who am i, what shall i do, I still have that free spirit, but the system I live in today, requires work, and heaps of savings, we can’t go without it until the system collapse’s.

      I’m back in prison and realizing the system is getting harder, and freedom seems bleak for others and me, but I shall free my self once again, this time I shall not return until I come back to free all the slaves.

    • Tubesteak says:

      10:44am | 16/01/13

      If you bought a $250k house you won’t be breathing easy for long as it would be falling around your head.
      If you want a house then go and earn one. No-one owes you a living and you don’t deserve to be handed everything on a silver platter.
      Everyone got on the ladder at some point so there is no such thing as propping up the upper class wealth. Some people make more money because they have something that earns more: whether a skill, a business, a service or a product. No sense whining because you didn’t get handed everything. You sound like a socialist feminist.
      There is no way of freeing yourself from the capitalist system. You’ll always need goods and services in one form or another (food, clothes, shelter, electricity, gas, whitegoods, electrical goods, repairs etc). This is the very nature of existence. We work to earn our keep.
      Remember, humans changed from tribes of hunters and gatherers to towns and cities of workers and producers. You cannot esacpe.
      We are all animals competing with each other for scarce resources. Don’t kid yourself any other way. What you do now is built on millions before you and around you. You cannot escape it. You can only make it work to your advantage by doing the right things. This means working to pay for it.

    • Al says:

      10:54am | 16/01/13

      john - the ‘shelter and food’ argument is not convincing.
      - Shelter this can be obtained completely free if you desire it, it just requires you to live away from the majority in an area that is not privately owned and to build your own shelter.
      - Food, also obtainable free of charge with a little work.

      My point is that money doesn’t buy you happiness, but it certainly makes achieveing the goals that you believe will make you happy easier.

    • John says:

      10:55am | 16/01/13

      JTO says:

      My idea is create more efficient economy, where one can have home with in 2 years, instead of 30 years. Society based on self sufficiency instead of dollars. Ban renting, forcing people to buy. Make sure there are jobs for the under-class’s, make laws so that the upper class’s can’t feed off the lower class’s. Making sure also the government policy’s makes home and apartments at very affordable prices. Making sure homes go down in prices instead of up.

    • John says:

      11:06am | 16/01/13

      Tubesteak says:

      You have to be kidding me have you seen house prices, have you seen rents prices? The younger generations like me are screwed. We have been regulated to be renters for the rest of outlives to pro-up middle-class investments and banking investments. We are being feed off, looking running on treadmill and getting know.

    • Modern Primitive says:

      11:28am | 16/01/13

      In fairness to john, the property market could be magnitudes easier to get into than it currently is.

    • fml says:

      11:52am | 16/01/13


      Your colonialist propaganda will not work on me!

    • guyperson says:

      12:01pm | 16/01/13

      John I know that, I didn’t bring up race either, I just used one of the many examples of slavery, since you compare working a job or paying off debt is even comparable to any form of slavery.

      Nope, it isn’t.  Your not a slave, you can quit your job any time you want and do what you want with your money and time, even if its just used about work on the internet.

    • Tubesteak says:

      12:31pm | 16/01/13

      Yes, I’ve seen rents and house prices. I own a few houses of my own so I know what they are. Plus, I’m GenX.
      You’ll be renting for the rest of your life because, judging by your grasp of grammar and spelling, I doubt you’ll ever get a decent job and it doesn’t like you’re willing to work for it.
      We all feed off each other, John, it’s how the world works. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. You pay the price the market sets or go without. What you’re talking about is socialism and that has never worked for some very good reasons.

    • subotic says:

      01:07pm | 16/01/13

      Slaves to the keyboard.

      All of them.

      Even John…..

    • sunny says:

      01:09pm | 16/01/13

      John - hehe I can picture you leading all the slaves across the desert for 40 years to reach the promise land.

      I’m currently an employee of a company I have equal part ownership of so I don’t feel like a slave one bit (although maybe to the bank). In the past I’ve had a variety of jobs (as employee only) and still liked going to work every bit, but will say it helps to have an interesting job. If I lost my job/company I definitely wouldn’t be directionless, I’ve got too many ideas on the backburner that I want to try out but don’t have the time right now.

      I agree that home prices are outlandish freezing out a lot of normal folk, and I’ve mentioned before that IMO it’s Howard’s fault for allowing/encouraging that frenzy to happen in the late 90’s and 00’s.

    • Modern Primitive says:

      01:09pm | 16/01/13

      Come on tube, its not like government at all levels and property industry people didn’t conspire to drive prices sky high. We could have affordable property here if it was a vote winner.

    • Modern Primitive says:

      01:09pm | 16/01/13


    • JTO says:

      02:13pm | 16/01/13

      Tubesteak - Started to write something along the same lines as you, but there was so much wrong with the suggestion that I gave up.

      John - If I have more money than you, I expect to be able to buy better stuff than you. If we both want the same house, I expect to get it because I’ll offer more money than you. That’s the way I expect it to work. I didn’t sulk when I failed to win several auctions in a row before getting my place just because there were wealthier people than myself bidding.

      MP - Let’s assume it is a nett vote winner because you’re compensating all the people that bought property before you destroyed the market, how would housing be made cheaper? The price reflects demand and nothing more. I could buy three houses in a different area for what I paid for mine, but I’d have to live somewhere else. If I want to live where I want, I expect to pay a premium, which I willingly did.

      subotic - You clearly don’t understand. There was someone wrong on the internet. We must respond. It’s not so much slavery as a noble contribution to society. You’re welcome.

    • Modern Primitive says:

      03:16pm | 16/01/13

      Speculative demand ain’t the same as demand, jto.

    • Modern Primitive says:

      03:16pm | 16/01/13

      Speculative demand ain’t the same as demand, jto.

    • Tubesteak says:

      03:48pm | 16/01/13

      Modern Primitive
      If I was able to buy property off my own bat then it’s affordable, no?
      What do you mean by affordable?
      The property industry is more than happy to slap up some housing. What gets in their way are governments, local councils and NIMBYs. Governments control the supply of land. Local councils impose a lot of codes. NIMBYs try to say that nothing can ever change in their area.

    • John says:

      04:47pm | 16/01/13


      Say what you want it sill doesn’t change the fact that your wealth is generated from back of the others. Your up because they are down. That classifies you as a thief. How about helping the lower class’s instead of taking every last cent from them.

      This is the system ladies and gentlemen, feel proud and mightily because the others are living on less. It should be human right for humans to have, rent free shelter. but western governments don’t understand this concept, its all about me, me, em.  It’s disease of parasites feeding off the mass’s keep other down to have their mansions and Mercedes. By the way I despise communists they are atheist cold blooded animals that murdered millions of people.

    • John says:

      05:03pm | 16/01/13

      Housing demand, is basically easy credit. You can go out to broker, and he will give you 500k in under 2 weeks, where in reality it would take 20 years to earn such money if there is a healthy economy in 20 years.

      The house bubble is to blame, bankers and their easy credit, government policy’s making it easy to push easy credit. The middle-class has been hocked and when the thing comes crash down, their jaws will ripped off. The higher class’s will laughing their head’s off as they got another sucker. They will go from owning three house’s to owning none.

      If your middle-class , I suggest you sell all your investments proprieties, doing your self a favor and the lower class’s. The bankers and the government will advise against this, because they are in on the scam.

    • Philosopher says:

      06:24pm | 16/01/13

      John: He who can live outside society is either a man or a god. Aristotle.

    • lower_case_andrew says:

      09:02am | 16/01/13

      To quote David Gilmour…

      “Money may not buy you happiness, but it lets you park your yacht next to it”

      In my experience, the only people who say things like “money can’t bring you happiness” are people who have never really been without money.

      For people who have genuinely been down and out, money means freedom, options, choices.

      And if you can’t feel a bit happier with freedom, options and choices in your life, then you can’t be happy at all.

      Money won’t make you a better person. But it will get you out of survival mode, and allow you to ENJOY life and HELP OTHERS.

    • Piper says:

      10:12am | 16/01/13

      Hear, Hear ....


      Well said !!

    • RobJ says:

      01:12pm | 16/01/13


      So, your experiences are very limited.

    • AAAdam says:

      09:03am | 16/01/13

      “...could it be that the best time to have lived is, in fact, right here and right now?”

      Not with this government. Citizens self perceived standard of living and subjective happiness has been falling ever since they came to power.

    • lower_case_andrew says:

      10:15am | 16/01/13

      Careful, Roxon might sue you for libel.

    • Big Jay says:

      09:09am | 16/01/13

      I’m not much of an academic, however, my take on the situation would be this.

      Easterlin, 1974 is still correct.  Sacks, Stevenson and Wolfers are probably partly correct.

      The thing is, I think people in poorer countries are actually more aware of how the other half live these days compared to 1974. Between, more information flowing around these days, more people from the first world going to the 3rd world for holidays and the various dictators/elites out there living large while people in their country are basically starving. Not to mention many countries have had their living standards fall between 1974 and 2012/13, having it and lost it is very different to never having it all, I’m pretty Zimbabwe is in this category.

      This would all revert back to Easterlin’s point about it being relative. If you’re richer than the Jones’ or compared to yourself last year then good. If not then you’ll be a bit sad I’d imagine.

      Furthermore, I’m a bit cynical of the Sacks, Stevenson and Wolfers research if it suggesting

      “There is no “happiness plateau” - an income point beyond which extra money has no impact on happiness. Rather, every pay rise makes you happier. But the returns diminish the higher up the income chain you go. Say you got a pay rise from $50,000 to $100,000, it would take another pay rise to $200,000 to buy as much happiness as the first.”...If you put that on a graph (extending the income further) it would definately look like a plateau!!

      This sounds like something they’re trying to get traction in the USA before people start asking questions about alternative economic models and their expectations from life.

    • Martin says:

      09:10am | 16/01/13

      The writer doesn’t understand basic statistical principles. It is impossible to determine from correlation whether wealth causes happiness, happiness causes wealth or perhaps a particular gene causes both. It’s just a correlation, not a causality study.

      A typical example when a scientific study is misinterpreted by someone who doesn’t understand it.

    • Mike says:

      09:13am | 16/01/13

      Money CAN buy happiness, because if you don’t like your boss, be a shareholder in the company by buying a majority stake (or all of it) and then sack him.  Simple.  I know one person who did this with a pub where he didn’t like the owner.

      Like Gene Simmons said - “All those people who said “Hey stupid, can’t you speak English?’ Now all those people work for me.” and “The root of all evil isn’t money; rather, it’s not having enough money.  Whoever said ‘Money can’t buy you love or joy’ obviously was not making enough money.”

      But the financially illiterate will misquote “money is the root of all evil” (Timothy 6:10) - which it doesn’t say, it says the hoarding and love of for it’s own sake - if it was as they quote, then was God rewarding Job with “evil” for doing His work, or King Solomon a bad person for being the richest and wisest king ?!  No. 

      It is more than a black and white question - “does being poor or rich make you happy” because having a load more money usually amplifies what you are underneath anyway.  I know a guy who is not hugely rich, but comfortably well off, but he is still miserable because he has a mentality that he is somehow still “poor”.  I know another guy who is a millionaire and he said that if he lost it all, he’d find a way to get it all back again because he knows how to make money, so he’s happy in the knowledge he’ll never starve or be destitute !

    • Michael says:

      09:13am | 16/01/13

      Right here and right now, that’s Gold! thanks Jessica smile You can keep the money.

    • Alex says:

      09:18am | 16/01/13

      Nonsense- happiness is all a matter of perception.  Of the purportedly happiest countries in the world, 7 out of 10 are in Central America, hardly the lap of luxury in an international context.  Suggesting that happiness stems from money is upsetting for both ends- for the poor it suggests they can’t really achieve happiness, and for the rich it leaves them asking “what gives, I should be happy now?!”.  It’s all a matter of perception.  So long as you have basic amenities and freedoms, you can live a very happy life.

    • lower_case_andrew says:

      10:25am | 16/01/13


      “Nonsense- happiness is all a matter of perception. “

      Let me guess… you typed that out on a communal PC in a homeless shelter?

      Give away your house, car, laptop, phone, cash.  Live without money.

      When you’ve done that, get get back to us, tell us if your “perception” of the world has changed.  Let us know if you’re still happy.  But be quick about it; there will be another homeless person standing in line wanting to use the PC.

    • RobJ says:

      09:21am | 16/01/13

      Ask yourself this, you win the lottery, millions, then a loved one dies, tragically. Would the money make you happy?

    • Disgruntled Goat says:

      10:02am | 16/01/13

      Irrelevant, being both poor or rich it will effect you regardless, however being financially better off you will be able to pay their funeral and burial\cremation costs without landing into debt.

    • lower_case_andrew says:

      11:29am | 16/01/13


      That’s a spurious, inappropriate argument.

      But let’s play it out a bit, just to see how far the moralising goes…

      That lottery win will pay for the funeral services.

      It will replace the lost income from your loved one’s death.  It means their children won’t go hungry.  It means their sole surviving parent (if any) won’t have to do double-shifts or spend more time away from the kids just to make ends meet.

      In other words, that money will help.

      And for anyone other than a zealot, some help is better than none.

      As anyone who has been poor will understand.

      Unfortunately, these type of arguments don’t work on people who have been relatively affluent or comfortable all their lives.  You have to have been desperately WITHOUT money, for a long time, to understand what power it has in the real world.

      Everything else is sophistry and bullcrap.

    • RobJ says:

      12:39pm | 16/01/13

      I’m picking that anyone in the situation I described would say “I would give all the money back to reverse the situation”

      Personally I don’t buy it, I believe that what makes people happy is the quality of their relationships with others.


      Whilst I’ve always been relatively affluent when compared to those who have to eke out an existence to survive I have been very poor by Western standards and I reckon the happiest, most carefree time of my life was my late teens and early twenties when I was at my poorest. That’s not to say that I’m not content now I just realise that my increase in wealth has not been a significant contributing factor in my happiness.

    • Muzza says:

      09:35am | 16/01/13

      “Money can’t buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery”- Spike Milligan

    • patsy says:

      11:25am | 16/01/13

      “Life is like a sh*t sandwich. The more bread you have, the less sh*t you gotta eat.” -not Spike Milligan

    • Mark says:

      09:44am | 16/01/13

      Money may not guarantee that you can live happily but it buys more drugs so you can deal with the agony.
      Still, even if it can’t make you happy it can make people unhappy, which is the other side of the same sword

    • Fred says:

      09:49am | 16/01/13

      Jessica I get your point,some good topics for debate here.Yes we as human beings are consumers on a grand scale ,when it comes to more money we make the more we spend.But at the end of the day we dont really see the damage it is impacting
      on our world today eg more tvs bigger mcmansions bigger yaghts takes recourcers from the earth to produces these things,not to mention the spiralling
      human population to have more children to make little replicas of ourselves
      to keep ourselves and the Jones happy.It all makes us so called happy for the short term,but we dont see the mess we are leaving behind for future

    • BJ says:

      09:49am | 16/01/13

      I think a point that has been missed here is that we are now more global. The research says that in ‘74 we would compare ourselves with the Jones’ across the road, but now we can compare ourselves with the Jones’ or equivalent across the world. More travel, more media exposure (television, Internet) means that those in poorer countries can compare themselves with “rich, happier westerners”, when in the past, they could only compare themselves with their local neighbours and they thought their lot was pretty good (you know, grass is greener, that old chestnut). Comparing the world of 2013 and the world of 1974 is not without its inherent flaws.
      Having travelled recently to a poorer country, it was clear that they felt that we had the happy easy life and it was something to strive toward, when in actual fact I doubt we are any happier than them at all.

    • Big Jay says:

      12:29pm | 16/01/13

      Exactly! - That was the point I was trying to make above, so totally agree.

    • Tubesteak says:

      09:55am | 16/01/13

      I think you got the hedonic treadmill definition incorrect. It refers to the fact that you will adjust to your “natural state” of happiness soon after a splurge or cash injection. It comes down to the fact that as animals we relied on consumption for survival. Therefore, if yesterday’s consumption satiated us we would not be inclined to go out and hunt today or tomorrow. Soon we would starve. Therefore, when we consume our brains release feel-good chemicals to associate with the consumption. These wear off soon enough and we go back to normal and look for a new way to get those chemicals again.

      Essentially, what makes us most happy is having more than our peer group so we can laud it over them.

      People that say money doesn’t buy happiness are typically ignorant socialists who’ve never had any real money, aren’t aware of the lifestyle impacts of not having money has (you’ll be eating cat food in retirement from your crappy little rented unrenovated studio apartment in Minto) or have never had to actually work for money because they had it handed to them.

    • gordie says:

      10:06am | 16/01/13

      acotrel must have no money because he always wakes up unhappy

    • lower_case_andrew says:

      10:20am | 16/01/13


      There’s a reason people call economics the “miserable science”.

      Not only is it not a science, but it is mostly useless as a reliable tool for measuring happiness, morality, social trends, economic developments or much else.

      Some things in life just aren’t academic, and aren’t particularly responsive to the academic or technical approach.

      I’m guessing—with a high degree of certainty—that most economists who say money can’t buy you happiness, are not poor.

    • Neil says:

      10:38am | 16/01/13

      I thought the 80s and early 90s were much better. Less materialistic, less people, society was more meritocratic, and I always found a way to have fun.

      Unfortunately money IS everything. Especially if you’re male. Everything else is icing on that cake.

    • Modern Primitive says:

      10:55am | 16/01/13

      Money goes some way in buying happiness. Not having to scrimp and save between paychecks is a nice feeling.

    • Meg says:

      10:56am | 16/01/13

      I disagree with this new study and tend to agree more with the older study where happiness is capped at the $75K mark. I think there is a definite difference between “well-being” and happiness. The key term they tend to be using is well-being in this study and i do agree as your income rises you tend to have more financial and health well-being however not necessarily contentment in your life. This may be because you are sacrificing part or even whole of your social life as a means as getting wealthier and therefore not as happy in these terms. I believe those who may work less and have more time for family and friends than that of those who earn more. At the end of the day individuals have to decide for themselves what is important to them, something always have to give…

    • Robert S McCormick says:

      10:57am | 16/01/13

      Coles’ Supermarkets seem to think it will buy them Happiness with their newest rip-off!
      This week in SA, & probably others too, they advertise Arnott’s Tim Tams at Half Price at $1.49.
      Big display, well signed.
      Directly in front of that display they have another, also of Arnott’s TimTams. The sole differences are:
      A cute little “Only at Coles” dot, and in what must be taking Souvenir items to an absurd extreme, the package is a bright blue. Same weight, same product.
      The Price? $2.99.
      Caveat Emptor!! Buyer Beware!!!

    • David Leek says:

      10:59am | 16/01/13

      I totally find it incoherent to rate the wealth of nations based on individual’s welbeing. This is because what makes one happy in one country is totally different from what makes another happy in another country. Happiness has no value and I would like to agree with someone who said that there are situations (numerous) where one can be “miserably rich” or happily living within his/her means (classified as poor).

    • DocBud says:

      11:48am | 16/01/13

      Ben Bernanke is absolutely correct, industrialisation has lifted millions out of poverty. We may have relative poverty in the developed world but it is a very different type of poverty than the absolute poverty of centuries ago or experienced by millions in the underdeveloped world. The effects of industrialisation tend to be largely permanent whereas charitable interventions are most often temporary fixes, i.e. if we want to see further reductions in poverty we have to have further industrialisation in the developing world and for that we need cheap energy. That is why it is disappointing to see supposedly anti-poverty charities such as Oxfam and World Vision advocating on AGW, supporting measures that will entrench poverty for the world’s poorest. If I was living in abject poverty, I’d rather be lifted out of that poverty through getting a job from an expanding economy than “saved” from some possible, but by no means certain, future event. This is especially so in the light of conclusions from the IPCC’s draft AR5 report which includes the statements:



    • Lasa Bailey says:

      12:00pm | 16/01/13

      The biggest problem with this is a majority of people have no idea what true happiness is! 
      It has nothing to do with having a house or money or possessions, it has to do with your heart and what you do with what has been given you

    • Bec says:

      01:02pm | 16/01/13

      I Agree….Thumbs Up for this comment… smile smile

    • fml says:

      02:19pm | 16/01/13

      “it has to do with your heart and what you do with what has been given you”

      Yeh, but if I have money I can just buy another heart…

    • boogieknight says:

      12:08pm | 16/01/13

      Money only brings temporary happiness to those who are brainwashed enough to play the system’s game. You have failed at life if you think money means anything.

    • guyperson says:

      01:10pm | 16/01/13

      ““You have failed at life if you think money means anything.”“

      Last time I checked it does. 

      Turns out an internet provider wants money from you to connect to the internet, the computer seller wanted money for you to buy the computer and the electric company wanted money for you to use there electricity to power up your computer.

      Sounds like to me money means a lot.  You use it a lot.

    • K^2 says:

      12:22pm | 16/01/13

      I think you have misunderstood the concept of money.  It is a proxy for two “spiritual” currencies, and when you think about it, you “spend time” and you “pay attention” - these concepts are required in anything that you manifest.  For example if you wish to make a table, you would have to spend both of those “spritual currencies” to achieve or manifest that item into reality.  What money allows you to do is rather than spend the time and attention yourself, you recieve a proxy as payment for what you do spend time and pay attention at (your individual occupation) and use that money to transfer that energy to another person as you can’t really pay them with time or attention in exchange so you use money as a proxy.  Money can never be used to purchase happiness in a “literal” sense because happiness can be defined as a state of harmony.  Money is a non-harmonic energy form because it is a proxy.  Think of money as an “energy transfer” in which you can apply the same laws of thermodynamics as you can with other forms of energy, and for proof positive that money is viewed as an energy system by the “powers that shouldn’t be” used terminology in regards to the recent summit in Switzerland as their catch phrase ‘Resilient Dynamism’ - which are terminologies used in relation to energy states.

    • DocBud says:

      01:23pm | 16/01/13

      What a convoluted way of saying money is a medium of exchange.

    • K^2 says:

      02:39pm | 16/01/13

      Essentially it is just a medium, but exchange of what, and what does that mean are important when saying its a medium of exchange.

      You create a cyclical energy with money.  You use dollar bills to pay your bills.  Its a cyclical energy loop, which feeds back to…where/what?
      Again, feedback loops are attributed to energy usually, although in the 1800’s was terminology used in economics.

      You mean I used a convoluted method, to describe a convoluted system….how odd….or not really…

    • DocBud says:

      04:28pm | 16/01/13

      Are you a social scientist, happy to use 50 words when 10 will do, keen to read more into the mundane than there is? Money simplifies life, it removes the complications of a system based on bartering.

    • fml says:

      12:30pm | 16/01/13

      What about pimps? They like money and they look pretty happy?

    • subotic says:

      01:10pm | 16/01/13

      And Rappers. They like money and they look pretty happy too.

      Oh. And I’ve never seen an unhappy Rapper’s girlfriend. Like, they don’t even have tonsils to get in the way, y’know…

    • fml says:

      01:34pm | 16/01/13

      or teeth on occasion…

    • Luc Belrose says:

      12:37pm | 16/01/13

      We need not be too complicated in our search for happiness. Happiness is to be honest with yourself, love and appreciate your family, your work mates and people you come across on a daily basis, Work hard to achieve your goals whatever they are. Have a few reliable friends. Be helpful on occasions to people in worse conditions than you. Be involved with your local community ie sports, school activities etc. Be generous with your time where you can. Help a charity, dedicate a few hours of of voluntary work for some charity organisation. Have the occasional beer with friends, enjoy your holidays, travel if you can… I think this is a simple “how to” and leave out all those other intricate and mysterious writings about chasing happiness.

    • Les says:

      12:59pm | 16/01/13

      If money and keeping up with the Jones makes you happy, than it’s a pretty good sign that your priorities in life are screwed up. It’s people that truly make other people happy. Without them everyone would be incredibly lonely and unhappy, even the ones with mountains of money.

    • NSS says:

      01:36pm | 16/01/13

      Rubbish. Siigh.Money doesn’t buy happiness, money buys comfort, there’s a big difference. Happiness is a state of spiritual and mental wellbeing, brought about by a lack of grasping attatchment to the ephemerally material and a genuine concern for other people, not just selfish self-interest.

      Rich people can lose their material wealth and comfort in a heartbeat. Truly happy and contented people cannot lose their asset completely. No matter what life throws at them. they can always regain it.

    • saver says:

      01:37pm | 16/01/13

      i saved a large amount of money from all my jobs from a young age. now,  i have not had a job in 3 years. i live on the interest generated from this amount (and still pay tax !!).. its not quite as big as some professional jobs, but its enough to never have to get on a peak hour train again. i still get most of the stuff i want and go on trips overseas..  i’m under 40, and most people i know struggle with debts and jobs they hate..etc. i am very thankful everyday because mum and dad taught us that this is the way to be. they are self funded retirees and have never taken one scrap of welfare cash in any form.  money sure as hell removes you from people and situations that you hate. it also helps if you don’t have chiildren, large housing debts or a greedy spouse that wants evrything in sight.

    • PW says:

      01:41pm | 16/01/13

      I got mixed up romantically with a woman my age (early 50s at the time) and of similar means to myself from Toulon, France (a damn beautiful place). She had to work another 10 years to get her life pension, and likewise I had to work another 7 or so years to access my super. To quit early would mean a huge loss in benefits.

      Had we not had these assets awaiting us we could have jumped in, but neither was prepared to lose everything, and the thought of all those years in chat rooms and flying to the South of France (and her to Australia) to be together for maybe 2 months a year was just too much, and we had to say goodbye.

      Moral: money does not always cause happiness. Sometimes it is a noose around your neck.

    • Tator says:

      01:52pm | 16/01/13

      Money = Happiness, I don’t think so, a more accurate equation would be Happiness = Time x Choice
      Money = Work x Time.
      and thus Happiness = Money/Work x Choice
      So basically the faster you earn your money requirements or the higher the monetary value of your work gives you more time and choices to enjoy the fruits of your labour.
      Happiness is not busting your arse working 80 hours a week to earn lots of money when you don’t have time to enjoy spending it.

    • Big Jay says:

      02:48pm | 16/01/13

      @Tator - Great comment!...I’m taking note for future reference.

    • Bob Downing says:

      02:04pm | 16/01/13

      “To what purpose is all the toil and bustle of this world? What is the end of avarice and ambition, of the pursuit of wealth, of power and pre-eminence? Is it to supply the necessities of nature? The wages of the meanest labourer can supply them. What then are the advantages of that great purpose of human life which we call bettering our condition? To be observed, to be attended to, to be taken notice of with sympathy, complacency, and approbation, are all the advantages which we can propose to derive from it.”(Adam Smith, 1759) I like this recent study because it serves as another prompt for the poor, disadvantaged and downtrodden in corrupt and mismanaged countries to agitate for societal change towards greater transparency and good-governance. The recent Arab Spring demonstrates where undereducation (36% illiteracy, twice world average), overpopulation (60-70% below 30 years of age, quadrupling since 1980), corruption (all Middle Eastern countries fall in bottom half of Global Tranparency Index) and poverty (entire GDP of Middle East equals that of Netherlands and Belgium combined) will lead. Poverty doesn’t lead to happiness and respect of the civil and human rights of others. Money buy shelter, comfort, resources, freedom, education….

    • Bob Downing says:

      02:04pm | 16/01/13


    • Molly says:

      02:50pm | 16/01/13

      They say that money doesn’t buy happiness but at least you can afford a decent psychiatrist!

    • 42 says:

      03:17pm | 16/01/13


    • Geoff T says:

      04:14pm | 16/01/13

      Money does not buy happiness - it makes you think you are happy !  I have worked in home property maintenance for 43 years and have been in tens of thousands of family homes and I can assure you that from what I have seen and experienced the poorer people are generally more happy than their wealthier counterparts !  They cope better with their current circumstance and position in life and without doubt are far more friendlier than the wealthy. They are happy with what they have and don’t want want want things they don’t need. And when it comes to paying - I have never ever been stung by a poor person financually but could easily say I’ve been ripped off by wealthy people a couple hundred times.  I certainly hope I don’t become wealthy (and miserable)  !!!

    • bananabender says:

      06:15pm | 16/01/13

      One of my mates is worth about $200 million. He once said to me “anyone who thinks money doesn’t buy happiness has got enough (money)”.

    • ray says:

      06:27pm | 16/01/13

      there is a limit to happiness via money…. there is only so much of it in the world and currently it is concentrated in a very very small % of the population.


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