Why I Like Data

The Easterlin paradox is a bedrock of social science and pop culture. Roughly, it argues that beyond a certain level of wealth, happiness no longer increases because you just end up wanting more stuff. It emerged from research in Japan in the 1970’s and it tells a nice story, that we’re more attuned to relative wealth and “money doesn’t buy happiness.” There are a host of reasons to want it to believe.

However, according to a story in the NY Times today, it might not be.

Feel free to read the story, but be sure to check out this graph:

—> —>Sure looks like a tiny bit of a trend there.