This is a text published on the editorial pages of Dagens Nyheter. The political stance of the editorial team is independently liberal.
Does money make you happier? That is the eternal question. A new research report from the School of Economics, Swedbank and Sparbankerna gives a very precise answer.
According to the report, happiness increases with income – but only up to a certain limit. Anyone who earns more than SEK 50,000 a month won’t be much happier.
Perhaps it is suggested Could it be that it is not money that creates happiness, but the lack of it that brings unhappiness because it means insecurity and limited freedom of action?
Yes!
At the same time, I can’t This report should help you get rid of the feeling that economic differences usually do. The discussion constantly touches on something, only to immediately stall again.
Is the whole question of whether money makes you happier completely wrong?
The report asks People about what they want most: increase their income or increase their happiness. Two out of three choose happiness, but – it is said – “those with low incomes and those feeling stress and worried about their finances choose more money instead.”
“It can be interpreted that people would like to have more happiness, but consciously or unconsciously think that money is the way to get there, or that too little money can get in the way of happiness,” says Micael Dahlen, professor of happiness and reporter, in the press release.
It is of course a possibility to see it.
However, another interpretation says that self-actualization simply means too many steps on the ladder of needs for those who do not have the basic necessities of life.
That everything is subordinated to the pursuit of money – not because you think it will make you personally happier, but because you want to be able to put decent food on the table for your children, buy them good winter boots and be able to afford to give them things Core memories on summer vacation, even if just for a week, with a tent off the block and grilled shark fins on a muddy lake at the back of the local bus.
Completely in keeping with the prevailing zeitgeist Isn’t poverty an unfair circumstance that society must combat? Rather, it is seen above all as an incomprehensible, stupid individual decision.
The solution will be to make it worse for those who are struggling.
The solution will be to make the situation even worse for those in need and to introduce caps that put them at risk of falling below the subsistence level. In this way, they will be motivated to improve their finances.
But think about it The fact is that poverty is not a rash of irrationality, but rather a pit that one can be born into or fall into – sometimes through sheer clumsiness! – but which is still very difficult to get out of once one is there.
How should politics then be designed? Given that almost no one likes living at the bottom.
Read more:
Lisa Magnusson: It’s not just about the 4-year-old, it’s about what country we want to be
Lisa Magnusson: Why is Dermot Clemenger treated as a moody uncle and not a perpetrator?
