Sydney, February 7 (ANI): Rich people are happier than their poorer compatriots, researchers have claimed.
Several recent papers by top economists have concluded that economic growth - and the higher gross domestic product (GDP) per person and improved wages that usually accompany it - does actually improve happiness and well-being.
One especially brilliant piece of research - by Daniel Sacks, Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, all US academics - demonstrates that happiness improves as incomes rise, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The paper showed that richer citizens report higher well-being than their poorer compatriots, at any given point as well as over time; that people in richer countries are happier than those in poorer countries; and that GDP growth boosts well-being.
These findings are confirmed by an excellent paper from Ruut Veenhoven and Floris Vergunst.
Using statistics compiled as part of the World Database of Happiness, they discover a positive relationship between GDP growth and improving happiness.
GDP and happiness have gone up in most countries, and average happiness has risen more in nations where the economy has grown the most.
The truth, it turns out, is that the aspiring classes were right all along. The richer we are, the happier we are. (ANI)
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