Money Can Buy Happiness

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Somewhere along the way, some wise person in your life, probably your mother, told you that money doesn’t buy happiness. And you believed her. Now researchers say that isn’t exactly true; money can in fact buy happiness, sort of.

Three decades of research in the field of “Happiness Economics” says there is a point when enough is enough, and too much makes you miserable. By definition the richest society in the history of the world, Americans spend more dollars on trash bags every year than 90 other countries spend on everything. Yet while our lives are packed with more and more “stuff,” the divorce rate has doubled, the teen suicide rate has tripled, and depression continues to soar. The paradox of purchase power.

Guests:

Polly LaBarre, Senior Editor of Fast Company, and author of the March 2003 article ‘How To Lead a Rich Life”

Professor Andrew Oswald, Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick (UK).