HW #4 econ 108

a.
In the is income and happiness related video that we saw, one thing that really stood out to me was of how almost every stat leading to a better life style increased as income increased. I was shocked at the stupidity of the Eastland paradox. This states that economic development does nothing for the well being of people so we shouldn't do it. Some thing that was good about the U of Penn professor's study is that he based his trend on the proportion of increase rather than just the theoretical number increase. I also was appalled by the statement that after $15,000 extra money doesn't help happiness. $15,000 isn't a lot of money let alone enough for someone to live a good quality life off of. As income goes up, many problems that people face every day of bills to be paid and affording new luxuries go away. To say that happiness stops after $15,000 is ridiculous. The best global scenario is to be rich in a rich country. People in rich countries are happier, less depressed, more stressed,  treated with more respect, eat better tasting food, smile and laugh more, want more days like yesterday, are more bored, less sad, more well rested, less physical pain, and love more. It was reassuring to know that politician's goals are to make people happier and have a better well being. This only brings hope for the future. The Cornell professor talked about how the life expectancy increases as income increases. He also talked about how we don't spend our money efficiently and how we can don't make money buy as much happiness as it should. Money buying happiness is more relative on a community level than a global scale. People tend to compare themselves to the people around them rather than people that they never associate with.

b.
1. The charts show that happiness keeps increasing through time and wealth. Do you think that there is a ceiling limit of happiness that will eventually be reached, or is there no ceiling and people will constantly become happier and happier as time and wealth increase?

2.
People in third world countries see things that we would consider outdated to be luxury for them. If these people moved to America and lived the life of a person in poverty, would they be content with this life or would they change their thinking to try and obtain as much wealth and luxury as possible?

c.
The main idea of this debate is that happiness most certainly does buy happiness. It has been shown through logarithmic stats which is the most accurate and logical way to convey this data. People are always trying to increase their wealth, and incentives that the economy offers to work harder are how we grow as an economy. Richer countries have happier people. Happiness is very similar to GDP.  Money and happiness are correlated so close that with an economic recession also comes a happiness recession.