New research suggests that more money really does lead to a more satisfying life. Justin Wolfers writes on New York Times:
Surveys of thousands of Swedish lottery winners have provided persuasive evidence of this truth. Lottery winners said they were substantially more satisfied with their lives than lottery losers. And those who won prizes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars reported being more satisfied than winners of mere tens of thousands. These effects are remarkably durable. They were still evident up to two decades after a big win. The findings appear in a research report, “Long-Run Effects of Lottery Wealth on Psychological Well-Being,” that has generated a lot of buzz among economists over the summer. The working paper is by Erik Lindqvist from the Stockholm School of Economics, Robert Ostling from Stockholm University and David Cesarini from New York University.
The only thing I question about survey results of lottery participants is that the pool of people involved have pretty much already proven themselves to be, well, stupid? Successful people, obviously there are a few exceptions, don’t waste their time playing negative sum games.