Gallup Management Journal: Money Does Buy Happiness

 

In an Q&A with Angus Deaton, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Economics Department at Princeton University, Deaton raises some interesting issues about life satisfaction and happiness. They are not the same but overlap.

Salient paragraphs:

It's not that Dr. Deaton doesn't like happiness or believe that people shouldn't be happy; rather, he believes that happiness is not the healthiest goal a society can have -- or perhaps the highest good to which it can aspire. In this provocative conversation, Dr. Deaton explores whether life satisfaction or happiness measures are important or meaningful and whether the pursuit of happiness or wealth matters more to societies than the development of human potential. He also discusses why foreign aid -- both social and financial -- to emerging countries might do more harm than good.

. . .

Deaton: Richer people seem to be happier, or at least they say they're more satisfied with their life, which is what you might expect. We all struggle to get richer, and we hope it will make us happier. That doesn't mean it necessarily will. But the belief in much of the literature is that as countries get richer over time, their populations don't actually get any more satisfied with their lives.

. . .

Deaton: I don't think we have much data on the Bill Gateses of this world. One view is that income only really matters when you're really poor. In Sierra Leone, a quarter of all children die before they're five years old. People don't have enough to eat a lot of the time. You would think that because their basic needs are not being met, and they have horrible diseases and worse, a little money surely must make them happier. And that seems to be true.

Read the article at Gallup: News Flash: Money Does Buy Happiness