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The Reason Many Ultrarich People Aren’t Satisfied With Their Wealth
Hotair.com ^ | 12-6-18 | John Sexton

Posted on 12/06/2018 9:04:43 PM PST by DeweyCA

This instinct to measure and compare doesn’t disappear once people have an obscene amount of money. “The problem is, Am I doing better than I was? is only [moving people in] one direction, which is up,” Norton says. And if a family amasses, say, $50 million but upgrades to a neighborhood where everyone has that much money (or more), they feel a lot less rich than if they had stuck to the peer comparisons they were making tens of millions of dollars ago. Hence the ever-shifting goalposts of wealth and satisfaction.

The research Norton has conducted illustrating this phenomenon is dispiriting. In a paper published earlier this year, he and his collaborators asked more than 2,000 people who have a net worth of at least $1 million (including many whose wealth far exceeded that threshold) how happy they were on a scale of one to 10, and then how much more money they would need to get to 10. “All the way up the income-wealth spectrum,” Norton told me, “basically everyone says [they’d need] two or three times as much” to be perfectly happy.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: happiness; money; satisfaction; wealth
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This is an excerpt from an article in The Atlantic. I remember telling about the shifting goalposts of comparative wealth to a wealthy friend when I was 32 years old. He was my age and was already a millionaire, had won trophies in downhill skiing and skeet shooting, and was one of the top sailors in the Chicago Yacht Club, but was still unsatisfied. He later became a Christian and his life turned around and he was much happier.
1 posted on 12/06/2018 9:04:43 PM PST by DeweyCA
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To: DeweyCA

A questionable quote (according to Snopes): John D. Rockefeller was once asked by a reporter how much money is enough. His famous answer was, “Just a little bit more.”


2 posted on 12/06/2018 9:08:52 PM PST by DeweyCA
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To: DeweyCA; null and void; dfwgator

We were poor. But we were happy back then.

We had a shoebox in the middle of the road.

You were lucky to have a shoebox!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1by0-nkKOTs


3 posted on 12/06/2018 9:12:17 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: DeweyCA

Happiness does not spring from wealth.

Happiness springs from love.

Love is the most precious treasure of this world, because love is the only thing you can bring with you when you die.


4 posted on 12/06/2018 9:16:02 PM PST by chris37
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To: DeweyCA

We were poor and didn’t know it.. We had family and were close.


5 posted on 12/06/2018 9:16:10 PM PST by tallyhoe
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To: DeweyCA

The Reason Many Ultrarich People Aren’t Satisfied With Their Wealth

They can’t find a tiny giraffe like that Russian guy on TV had.


6 posted on 12/06/2018 9:17:59 PM PST by VanShuyten ("...that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals.")
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To: DeweyCA

“A man should spend the first third of his life learning as much as he can, the second third of life making as much money as he can and the last third giving it all away. The man who dies wealthy, dies disgraced.” -Andrew Carnegie


7 posted on 12/06/2018 9:23:55 PM PST by NRx (A man of honor passes his father's civilization to his son without surrendering it to strangers.)
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To: NRx

The late great golfer Bobby Jones said it best:

“You can only eat two eggs for breakfast. You can only wear one suit a day. You only need enough money to live well and be kind to your friends.”


8 posted on 12/06/2018 9:42:50 PM PST by elcid1970 (My gun safe is saying, "Room for one more, honey!")
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To: tallyhoe
We were poor and didn’t know it.. We had family and were close.

Then you weren't poor.

9 posted on 12/06/2018 9:47:14 PM PST by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith......)
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To: chris37


Happiness does not spring from wealth.

and feeling wealthy is not a function of how much you have, but a function of appreciating what you have.


10 posted on 12/06/2018 9:55:48 PM PST by 867V309 (Lock Her Up)
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To: 867V309

That is a very good point. Thank you.


11 posted on 12/06/2018 10:02:02 PM PST by chris37
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To: chris37


That is a very good point. Thank you.

You're welcome. It took me a long time to accept.


12 posted on 12/06/2018 10:06:50 PM PST by 867V309 (Lock Her Up)
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To: SaveFerris

People who are poor are happy, and unhappy.

People who are rich are happy, and unhappy.

Neither are content.


13 posted on 12/06/2018 10:17:53 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: DeweyCA

Numerous studies have proved that happiness peaks at a certain earning amount. Right now it is around 120-140K per year. Basically at this level you can own a nice home, drive a reliable car, eat good food, and take a yearly vacation. In other words once your needs are met, your bills are always paid, and you can have some fun no more money really matters.


14 posted on 12/06/2018 10:21:24 PM PST by LukeL
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To: Secret Agent Man

I seem to remember Reagan on Carson(?).

He said the government did a study on happiness, rich versus poor, old versus you and sick vs. healthy.

He said the government discovered that people were happier if they were young, rich and healthy as opposed to old, poor and sick.


15 posted on 12/06/2018 10:22:36 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: DeweyCA

Money may not be able to buy happiness, but it sure helps you pass the time while being miserable!


16 posted on 12/06/2018 10:25:57 PM PST by BullDog108 (A Smith & Wesson beats four aces!)
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To: DeweyCA

“I don’t care too much for money — money can’t buy me love.”


17 posted on 12/06/2018 10:49:27 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (May Jesus Christ be praised.)
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To: BullDog108

The money you give to help needy people will buy you more happiness than whiling the time away with it does.


18 posted on 12/06/2018 10:50:27 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (May Jesus Christ be praised.)
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To: NRx

Indeed — “life on earth” isn’t just some static thing, except to a fool. What is most important in it depends on the phase where one is.


19 posted on 12/06/2018 10:53:55 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (May Jesus Christ be praised.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

When people are attaining great wealth as Bill Gates and others at the top of corporations when they get to this great point the most important thing is then control to shape the world in their vision. To achieve this goal is corporate controlled socialism abetted by government.

It does not end well. It ends with great death and not civil war but war by localized patriots of the constitution. The real hell of it is if it becomes this we are weak to outside forces that wish us great harm. We could well lose the battle to outside forces if we are not united as a nation.


20 posted on 12/06/2018 11:13:35 PM PST by cpdiii (Cane Cutter, Deckhand,Roughneck, Geologist, Pilot, Pharmacist: THE CONSTITUTION IS WORTH DYING FOR!)
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