The Happiness Lottery

Other research suggests that income doesn’t have a lasting increase on happiness because people usually adapt to money. In contrast, marriage, family, and health have lasting increases on happiness and are immune to hedonic adaptation

But there’s a related factor. There’s this impending sense that I have to make up for lost time.

A poor person with a spouse, a close friend, a relationship with a neighbor, and who attends a religious service can achieve the same level of happiness as an affluent upper middle class person.

It struck me that I don’t feel “relaxed” unless I’m working.

Somehow we’ve become reluctant to publicly endorse any sort of value that lies outside of economics. Governments pay people to take vaccines. Cities are paying residents not to shoot people.