Passage A Research concerning happiness and wealth reveals a paradox: at any one time richer people report higher levels of happiness than poorer people in the same society report, and yet over time advanced societies have not grown happier as they have grown richer.
Topic
The relationship between wealth, happiness, and the importance of comparison and perceived success.
Framework
Answer / Explain (with a dash of Present Debate on how to interpret rivalry in happiness studies)
Main Point
Across both passages, the authors explore why increasing wealth doesn't necessarily make societies happier over time. The key explanation is that people adjust their expectations and compare themselves to others—either due to habituation, rivalry, or a desire to feel successful. (The Most Valuable Sentence is in Passage A, P1: and in Passage B, P2: )
P1 (A): Introduction of the Wealth-Happiness Paradox
We learn that richer people in a society tend to be happier than poorer people, but as societies get wealthier, they don't necessarily get happier overall. This is because as incomes rise, so do people’s expectations (income "norms"), due to getting used to new standards (habituation) and comparing themselves to others (rivalry).
P2 (A): How Habituation Works
Raising living standards feels great at first, but soon people get used to it, so it no longer makes a difference; people's definition of "enough" money moves up as their income does. Job satisfaction is more about increases in pay than about absolute pay.
P3 (A): Overvaluing Material Goods
People fail to realize how quickly they adjust to new material possessions, so they end up overemphasizing stuff and sacrificing leisure, thinking those material gains will make them happier than they actually will.