The Easterlin Paradox

The Easterlin Paradox suggests that while individuals with higher incomes tend to report greater happiness, nations overall do not become significantly happier as they grow wealthier. Essentially, within a society, richer people are generally happier than poorer ones, but as a country becomes wealthier over time, its average happiness doesn’t improve. This paradox highlights that factors like social relationships, health, and personal fulfillment may play a more crucial role in happiness than just financial wealth, indicating that relative income and societal conditions matter just as much, if not more, than absolute income levels.