The "Price" of Happiness: Some Things Can’t be Commodified

Can money buy happiness? Some social scientists in the UK took a look. And they discovered that the primary factors that make for a happy life aren’t money, but strong social connections.

The researchers created a “life satisfaction scale,” that ranged from one (miserable) to seven (euphoric). They then tried to put the unquantifiable in money terms, figuring the “extra money the average person would have to earn every year to move up one point on the scale to another. They also worked out how far life events and changing social relationships on their own could move someone up the satisfaction scale.” The results don’t surprise me but are worth considering. From the story:

By comparing these two types of information, they were able to put a “price” on social and lifestyle factors. So, for example, they found that having excellent health was worth the equivalent of a £304,000-a-year pay rise in how happy it made you feel.

Marriage increases happiness levels by the same amount as earning an extra £54,000 a year, although, surprisingly, living together was worth more, at an extra £82,500. Meanwhile, chatting to your neighbours on a regular basis would make you as happy as getting a £40,000-a-year pay boost.

The scale also works in reverse, however, so that the grief of becoming widowed decreases your satisfaction-with life by the same amount as your salary dropping £200,000 a year.

Dr Nattavudh Powdthavee, one of the main researchers, said: “One of the things we wanted to find out was the answer to the age-old question—can money buy the greatest amount of happiness for us?”

What they found, he explained, was that the results showed the importance of social relationships. “One potential explanation is that social activities tend to require our attention while they are being experienced, so that the joy derived from them lasts longer in our memory,” he said. “Income, on the other hand, is mostly in the background. “We don’t normally have to pay so much attention to the fact that we’ll be getting a pay packet at the end of the week or month, so the joy derived from income doesn’t last as long.”

If one is broke, money becomes a bigger factor, of course. But some of the unhappiest people I have known have also been the wealthiest.

Still, I think the good professors missed the most important factor. This is Smith on life, so take it for what it is worth, but I have come to believe that the primary factor for our happiness—or even more important, joy—is love, the ability to love others, to be loved, and for those of a faith persuasion, to give love to and experience love from, one’s concept of God. Get the love part right, particularly when it is experienced as a two-way street, and chances are you will be joyful—even in times of stress, grief, dying, and turmoil. As the Beatles put it, “Love is all you need.” The rest is details. And that truly is priceless.