To be happy, live below your means
Harvard economist Edward Glaeser writes:
Envy is not just a deadly sin, it is also an emotional reality. My colleague Erzo Luttmer finds that middle-income people who live around the rich are significantly less happy than middle-income people who have poorer neighbors. Today’s new fashion for frugality may reflect an awareness that showing off one’s prosperity imposes emotional costs on others.
Posted by James on Tuesday, February 17, 2009