Not Only Does Money Not Buy Happiness, But Now We're Poorer Too

David Schatsky | April 16, 2008, 10:04 AM

Strange surge in interest in happiness: A book about which countries harbor the happiest and least happiest people; an article on how misspending our time (especially in "neutral downtime"--mostly watching TV) is impairing our happiness; how living in a McMansion can bring us down (now you tell us); and today an article on how money might just buy happiness after all (published, unfortunately, just when so many people seem to be getting poorer).

This last one is interesting. riffs on a paper by a couple of economists that sought to overturn a staple of psycho-socio-economic thinking since the 1970s that money (or, more broadly, economic growth) doesn't buy happiness after all. The article cites new research that says it might just. But it acknowledges that some things--spending time with friends and family, shorter commutes--don't cost money.

Not so sure about that. If you consider what it costs to have a short commute to your job in Manhattan, or what it takes to afford time with friends and family, you might conclude that the best things in life were free, but they are getting costlier.