Money and happiness is a very broad topic with many different factors. People can have very different views on the subject, depending on facets of their lives such as expectations, social customs and ethnicity. The subcategory addressed in this essay concerns a small population of people. Money can be beneficial. From the research below, it may be obvious that money is more trouble than it's worth when it comes to millionaires. Millionaires find themselves locked into endless drudgery and social pressure prevents them from going back. This creates an environment in which it is difficult to cultivate happiness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The general population actually believes that wealth does not substantially increase happiness. These predictions are true, wealth and happiness stagnate and only increase when an important threshold is reached. The chances of reaching this threshold are very slim. Cornell University psychology professors Jeremy Cone and Thomas Gilovich's article, Understanding the Limits of Money: People's Beliefs About Income – Correlation of Happiness, aimed to examine the general population's perception of money and happiness. Participants were asked to predict the false wealth of two individuals and to correlate the amount of money each had with said wealth. The study found that "...participants' estimates appear to reflect a genuine belief that income and happiness are only weakly correlated." » Now, that's exactly what people think. So, is there a real correlation between wealth and happiness? Another paper aiming to prove this by Grant E. Donnelly, Tianyi Zheng, Emily Haisley, and Michael I. Norton, all university professors, The Amount and Source of Millionaires' Wealth (Moderately) Predicts Their Happiness. This article examined the association of happiness with money and found that between $1 million and $10 million there was no increase in happiness, although beyond $10 million there was. had a large increase in happiness (Norton, Haisley, Donnelly, Zheng, 2018). According to a PK article from DQYDJ, the probability of reaching $10,000,000 is 1 percent (PK, 2019). The general population seems to have a broad idea of ​​the link between wealth and happiness. With the second article, it becomes clear that the predictions regarding the general population are correct. Happiness increases significantly after $10 million, which has merit, but the chance of anyone achieving that wealth in America is 1%. If an individual achieves this level of wealth, what stops them from being happy? Wealth is not the factor that contributes to the happiness of millionaires. Millionaires care about those around them. What some millionaires do to feel better than others is to flaunt their wealth. Expanding on this claim is a series of interviews with Atlantic Times writer Jason Pinsker in his article The Reason Many Ultrarich People Aren't Satisfied With Their Wealth. In this article, he speaks with Michael Norton, a Harvard business professor who studies the wealthy. Pinsket wrote: “Norton says research consistently highlights two central questions people ask themselves when determining whether they are satisfied with something in their life: Am I doing better than before? and am I doing better than others? (Pinsker, 2018). With this information, it can be assumed that wealth can spark some sort of consciousnesssocial with its holder. Another quote from the article is from Brooke Harrington, a professor at Copenhagen Business School. She said this when asked about the insecurity of millionaires: “The feeling of being well off is not about fulfilling a childhood dream of buying a sailboat or something like that; feeling rich is a matter of comparing yourself to other members of your reference group. The question is therefore not what individuals want to buy, but what they feel they need to buy to maintain their status (Pinsker, 2018). What seems to be just as important to the wealth that millionaires earn is the social status that comes with it. The more money they have, the more opportunities there are to display that wealth through objects. Material possessions play a role in this game of hierarchy within the small community of the ultra-rich. Sometimes wealth is given either through inheritance or luck. While earning or receiving a lot of money through smart business ventures can make us all jump for joy, it comes with problems. Depending on the amount and source of millionaires' wealth, predict (moderately) their happiness. They asked their participants who had around $1 million to $10 million how much money they received from inheritance. Through the data collected, they discovered that on average, unearned wealth leads to decreased happiness. With their findings, they proposed that perhaps wealth earned appears more valuable to the individual and therefore increases happiness (Norton, Haisley, Donnelly, Zheng, 2018). If what they say is true, then gaining wealth is an important factor. To further support this claim, there is another interview from The Reason Many Ultra-Rich People Are Unhappy With Their Wealth. In this interview, Gary Shteyngart, a novelist talks about his interaction with luck-based millionaires. He said: "Hedge fund managers can sometimes get rich by making one or two bets that have more to do with luck than anything else, which can make them feel like their intelligence is being questioned, even if their money is a testament to their professionalism. success". It seems, with this evidence, that the problem that arises from unearned wealth is that of insatiable happiness. Money does not carry the same weight as if it had been earned. It may be necessary to earn of wealth to feel a sense of happiness and satisfaction If wealth is not earned, the individual might also feel less intelligent than their peers. Money being at the forefront of most people's minds. millionaires, now you may be wondering how much is enough? From the study's data The amount and source of millionaires' wealth (moderately) predict their happiness, they found that happiness between one million and ten million of dollars does not increase happiness The researchers also asked participants earning between $1 million and $10 million how much money they would need to be satisfied For millionaires to be a perfect 10 in happiness, 23. .2% said they needed a 100% raise, 24.5% said they needed a 500% raise, and 26.8% said they needed a 1,000% increase in their wealth. It seems that even with all this money, they still aren't close to being happy. One reason could be that they don't feel financially secure. To support this statement, there is an interview from the article In Silicon Valley, Millionaires Who Don't Feel Rich by Gary Rivlin, writer for the New York Times. DavidMenlo Park planner W. Hettig said: “People here, if they have $2 or $3 million, they don't feel safe. Another interviewee, Gary Kremen, founder of Match.com, said, "You're no one here with $10 million." Kremen also said: “Everyone here looks at the people above them” (Rivlin, 2007). So how much is enough? Short answer a lot, long answer, happiness does not lie in numbers but somewhere in their status. If these millionaires always look above themselves, the richest. It makes sense then that they would want ever higher numbers than those above them. They determine this number most likely based on the people around them or those they observe. That's why we're seeing such big numbers, like a 100 to 1,000 percent increase. Once a person reaches a higher level of wealth (top 9%), living a lavish lifestyle continues to drain funds from millionaires due to the social customs of communities. around them. This mindset is perfectly exemplified by Tony Barbgallo, a product manager with a net worth of 1.5 million. He explains how the "fancy resorts, vintage hotels, wines, and country clubs they used to attend are no longer good enough because other people living around them boast of more lavish experiences. Simply put, Barbgallo said: “…the cost of living is ballooning” (Rivlin, 2007). Another example of this is that of Harvard business professor Michael Norton, who described what he called the "...ever-changing goal post." What he means by this is that when a family with a lot of money moves to a new community with even richer people, it knocks them down. They do not feel as wealthy as if they stayed in their old neighborhood (Pinsker, 2018). Obtaining happiness through wealth is a difficult goal to achieve. It seems that millionaires like Barbgallo are always looking for the next obstacle to overcome to prove to others that they are better. Millionaires seek to increase their status through their material possessions and fancy travel. This drains them of their funds and forces them to always continue to work thanks to the people around them. Every country has its richest people and many of us dream of reaching the country's main breadwinners. Even though most never reach that goal, we let the upper class get richer each year. It is the fault of the countries that control the rich, but above all of the people's ignorance of the real extent of the class divide. Economic injustice or inequality is a problem that is slowly getting worse every year. It is clear from the exploration below that inequality is a problem that deserves attention. Economic inequality does not only affect money, it plays a larger role in the lives of citizens of every country. What makes a country attractive to the rich? A logical factor would be tax breaks and standard of living. How important are these aspects to the extremely upper class? An in-depth research paper by Vladimir Popov, a researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences, examined the effects of income inequality and what makes a country attractive to the wealthy. In his first article entitled Why do some countries have more billionaires than others? Explaining the variations in the billionaire intensity of GDP, he found that there were several factors. An obvious idea would be for the rich to go to countries where tax breaks are greatest. Vladimir refutes this hypothesis by showing that theThe most important factors are standard of living, crime rate and life expectancy. Vladimir found that in most countries where taxes are high, the standard of living is better on average. Using data from the World Happiness Report by GDP, Vladimir determined that the country with the highest number of wealthy people was Hong Kong, China, with Cyprus behind it. He also found that countries with low or no personal income taxes, such as Oman and Bahrain, do not attract the wealthy due to their low standards of living (Popov, 2018). Lisa Kiester, a professor of sociology at Duke University, has written about another factor that may play a role in why the wealthy go to certain countries. In her article titled The One Percent, she said, “…we tend to spend most of our time with people like us. Even those who are extremely rich or extremely poor spend most of their time in the company of other people who are very rich or very poor…” (Kiester 2014). With these factors, standard of living, crime rate and life expectancy play a major role in attracting the wealthy. It seems that the rich also like to stay together to create a like-minded community. Taxes would be a logical factor, but they are easily overshadowed by other more attractive factors such as life expectancy and crime rates. A perfect country for the rich is a developed country with already wealthy residents and a high standard of living. It is almost impossible to balance living standards and taxes. That said, how does this affect the people below them? Economic inequality has a significant impact on the wealthy. It is an inevitable factor that exists between attractive and unattractive countries. Inequality leads to economic stagnation and an ever-widening gap between the upper class and everyone below. Lisa Keister's The One Percent found that the richest 10% of the world's population own more than 74% of the world's financial assets (Keister 2014). Keister determined that most people don't care because "even as inequality gets worse, most people tend to do better." Some segments of the population have struggled over time, but people are faring much better than previous generations. This creates individual well-being even in the face of growing inequality” (Keister 2014). Vladmir Popov in his essay Billionaires, millionaires, inequality and happiness. It has been found that the lives of the rich in underdeveloped countries lead to economic stagnation. He also found that when inequality in countries is higher, children from the said upper class tend to have the same level of wealth as their parents (Popov, 2019). With wealth lasting multiple generations, this creates an economic gap that does not disappear in a single generation, leading to longer periods of stagnation. The problem is that people don't realize this in developed countries because the standard of living has increased over time. The only time this is a concern is when it occurs in underdeveloped countries, where the effects are most severe. Vladimir spoke to a harsh reality about how underdeveloped countries could end stagnation. He said: “It may take a revolution to break this vicious circle and get out of the bad balance.” How does economic inequality affect the poorest? High income inequality in poorer countries has, in some cases, had a positive effect. Vladimir discovered in Billionaires, Millionaires, Inequalities and Happiness that.