Happiness and Wealth

Happiness and Wealth

Would You Be Happier If You Were Richer? A Focusing Illusion

Many people believe that money can make a person happier. However, studies have shown that this assumption is not true because there are several factors that determine a person's happiness. Happiness is all about how satisfied a person is in life and money does not guarantee complete satisfaction. Research has determined that there is a slight correlation between money and happiness and those who do witness happiness from money fell this because of certain occasions (Kahneman et al, 2006).

When people consider a single factor important for happiness, their main focus is on that item. In this way, they forget about everything else. For instance if a person considers money to be the main source of happiness, they would spend their entire lives collecting money and in doing so, they would let go of the things that lead to happiness. People adapt their lives to material goods while happiness is mainly related to non-materialistic things (Kahneman et al, 2006).

This study researched the factors that cause happiness and found out that people who spend a longer time in leisure activities spend a happier life. Although they may not have money, happiness is higher than those who spend most of their time earning money. Thus, money cannot be proved to be an important source of happiness. However, the lack of money can lead to more troubles in life. Despite the weak link between money and happiness, people still spend a lot of their time earning money while this time can be spent on other activities that can help them increase their happiness.

Happiness and Economic Performance

This paper is associated with the economics of happiness i.e. things that make people happy. There is a view among some scholars that the economic ...