Economic Wisdom to Apply in Your Twenties

Chapter 88

Chapter 11 Section 4 Will the more money you have, the happier you will be?
In 2008, a young woman with a master's degree in Wuhan made a high-profile marriage proposal in the media, and the condition was that the man should be worth more than ten million yuan.But in real life, more and more beauties are beginning to move closer to rich men.Most people would sneer at the phenomenon of asking for marriage and the phenomenon of beauties and sugar daddies.However, the paradox is that in the eyes of most Chinese people, money and income are still important criteria for measuring happiness.

In 2004, Xi Kaiyuan, a professor at the University of Chicago and director of the Behavioral Science Research Center of China Europe International Business School, cooperated with "Oriental Outlook Weekly" to conduct a happiness index test on six major cities in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Xi'an, and Chengdu).The test results show that in each city, the income level of individuals is directly related to their happiness index.In general, people with higher incomes are happier.For example, in the same city—Shanghai, people with an average monthly income of less than 6 yuan feel the least happy. As income gradually increases and wealth increases, people are more likely to be happy.

The relationship between wealth and happiness is evident.

There was once a foreign book that said, "Economic conditions strongly affect people's happiness."The reality has already proved that rich people can have more enjoyment and live a more comfortable and comfortable life.What's more, from the perspective of "rationality" in economics, we engage in all activities to maximize our own interests, that is, to maximize our own happiness.

Traditional economics believes that increasing people's wealth is the most effective means of improving people's happiness.However, Professor Xi Kaiyuan believes that wealth is only one of the small factors that can bring happiness. Whether people are happy depends largely on many factors that have nothing to do with absolute wealth.For example, in the past few decades, the per capita GDP of the United States has doubled, but many studies have found that people's happiness has not changed much, but their stress has increased.This raises a very interesting question: we expend so much energy and resources, increasing the wealth of the entire society, but the level of happiness of people does not change much.Why?

In the final analysis, what people ultimately pursue is the happiness of life, not more money.Because, starting from "utility maximization", the greatest utility for people is not wealth, but happiness itself.

In 2001, Tito, a 61-year-old rich man from the United States, spent $2000 million to travel to the Russian International Space Station for space tourism. In 2002, the 28-year-old South African rich man Mark also played once.There are also many foreign rich people like this: either sailing across the Pacific Ocean, or traveling around the world in a hot air balloon.From Professor Xi's point of view, those people want to turn wealth into real happiness.

It's just that these rich people need such expensive means to make themselves feel happy, and it may only take a piece of bread or a bowl of hot porridge to make a hungry person happy.If the vertical axis represents happiness and the horizontal axis represents wealth, then the relationship between the two can be reflected by a curve: when people are poor, the initial wealth accumulation must bring people a sharp increase in happiness.After the accumulation of wealth reaches a certain level, the increase in happiness enters a gentle slope.When the wealth grows to a certain amount, which greatly exceeds the needs of a person's life, and the owner can "do whatever they want", the increase in happiness will basically become a horizontal line, and it will be difficult to have more growth.No matter how much money and wealth there is, life is still flawed, and it is impossible for people to achieve 100% happiness.

Of course, 2000 million yuan is better than 1000 million yuan, but few people can double their happiness in the same way.This is really difficult: you can't eat three meals, you can't sleep in a bed, and your wealth has increased, but your happiness may not necessarily increase year-on-year.So, learn to be content and be happy, and feel the happiness of the moment!

Wisdom Pieces: The Happiness Association

Australia's Happiness Society has just opened, and for as little as 200 Australian dollars (about $140) an hour, you can learn to experience great happiness, regardless of gender.If it is a group consumption, only 30 Australian dollars per person is required.

Timothy Sharp, the association's founder, said: "You can really increase your happiness level, and that's what we're going to teach you. We can put a person with zero happiness 'deposit' in their happiness bank account." There is a balance."

(End of this chapter)