Angus Deaton, Princeton economist, argues that there is a “happiness plateau” that can be reached above an annual salary of $75,000 (49,000 pounds). His study with Daniel Kahneman. Anything above that is really quite useless to happiness.
The motivation for the study was the debate as to whether “money buys happiness” that often comes up in discussions of subjective well-being. Hence, the two experts decided to look at income rates in association with well-being. The experts found that low incomes exacerbate the emotional pain associated with misfortuntes such as divorce, ill health and loneliness, whereas high income can buy life satisfaction. Though high income rates can’t buy happiness per se, low income rates are associated with both low life evaluation and low emotional well-being.
Hence, the conclusion of the study is that giving people an income more than $75,000 is not going to do much for their daily mood but it is going to make them feel they have a better life.
