| Final-Fan said: Well, you're the sociologist here, so please explain to me why it's not just that people gauge day-to-day happiness and sorrow against their overall happiness ... which is higher according to the rich. Could you also link me to a study that says that about the middle class? This one only mentioned the top ("over $100k") and the bottom ($20k). And is $100k really "rich"? Honest question I assure you, I don't know what is considered the line between upper-middle and just upper. |
Well this is more Psychology then Sociology.
The reason is Overall happiness isn't anything. It's an illusion. The person who says they're "really happy" and the person who says they're "not happy at all" but have the same day to day breakdowns of how they feel... feel exactly the same.
It's just they have different ideas on what happy is supposed to feel like... they rich person thinks "I'm rich, therefore i should be happy. Even when they aren't... and spend most nights unable to sleep worrying about their job.
Or the poor person thinks they're sad, because they're broke. Even though they spend most of their time laughing and having fun with their friends... because they think people who are poor should be unhappy.
They don't examine it.
