

The price of Happiness: $75,000 - Anon84
http://www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/09/study-says-$75,000-can-buy-happiness.html

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RiderOfGiraffes
Same topic, many articles:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668979> <\- This one

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668909>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668478>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1667603>

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Jun8
Interesting article. Key idea is:

"We suspect that this means, in part, that when people have a lot more money,
they can buy a lot more pleasures, but there are some indications that when
you have a lot of money, you will savor each pleasure less."

So, our perception of happiness is explained by Weber-Fechner Law
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weber%E2%80%93Fechner_law>), too, similar to
our sensory perceptions: it is logarithmic and saturates after a point.

This is why it is impossible to design a paradise (or hell for that matter)
that humans can enjoy indefinitely.

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robrenaud
If people understood and believed this, doesn't this bode poorly for
recruiting people to work at startups? If you can make 100k at a stable,
established software company, and you've already saturated the utility of
money, a compensation based argument for working at a startup is hard to make.
This bounds the reward for "hitting the lottery" with a successful startup.
With small some chance you make a ton of money, and you aren't much happier
than if you'd only took the sure bet of a steady income. On the other hand,
there is a large chance that you'll actually living under the money-happiness
saturation point when the startup fails.

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akadien
Does it follow that happiness and life satisfaction should be adjusted for
inflation?

My interpretation of the findings: High incomes typically demand more time
away from people and health-inducing activities (e.g., more time spent at the
office and on airplanes). There are different stressors associated with low
and high incomes. The holy grail is to find that incomes level that minimizes
the number and intensity of stressors while maximizing time spent in
activities that you control that bring you pleasure.

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pchristensen
Is this per-capita? My salary is higher than that but I'm providing for 5
people, so _I_ get nowhere near that.

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sr3d
It used to be $60,000, but now after adjusted for inflation, your happiness is
priced at $75,000.

