“There is overwhelming evidence that money buys happiness,” said Andrew Oswald, an economist with the University of Warwick, in England. The debate, he said, is how strong the effect is.

"If You’ve Got the Money, Honey, You May Be a Little Bit Happier"

Money can’t buy happiness, or so the saying goes. But it may not be true.

Ed Diener, a University of Illinois psychologist, said that the connection was complex but that very rich people rated substantially higher in satisfaction with life than very poor people did, even within wealthy nations.

“There is overwhelming evidence that money buys happiness,” said Andrew Oswald, an economist with the University of Warwick, in England. The debate, he said, is how strong the effect is.

Professor Oswald reported a study of Britons who won $2,000 to $250,000 in a lottery. They showed an increase in happiness averaging just more than a point on a 36-point scale two years later.

Daniel Kahneman, an economist at Princeton and a winner of the Nobel in economic science, and colleagues declared that the notion that making a lot of money would produce a good overall mood was “mostly illusory.”

In one study, they said, people with household incomes of $90,000 or more were only slightly more likely to call themselves very happy over all than were people from households making $50,000 to $89,999 — 43 percent to 42 percent. (Members of the first group were nearly twice as likely to be “very happy” as people from households with incomes below $20,000.)

Other studies, rather than asking for a summary estimate of happiness, followed people and repeatedly recorded their feelings. These studies show a smaller effect of income on happiness, Professor Kahneman and his colleagues said.

There is another twist to the story of money and happiness. Even though people who make $150,000 are considerably happier than those who make $40,000, it is not clear why, said Richard E. Lucas, a psychologist at Michigan State University.

Does money make someone happier? Or does being happier allow someone to earn more money?

In any case, researchers say money’s effect is small. “It’s much better advice, if you’re looking for happiness in life, to try to find the right husband or wife rather than trying to double your salary,” Professor Oswald said.

(Thanks for this smays.com) 

It’s been a very long time since the progressive agenda has been this well positioned to actually get something done — Don’t blow it!

I’m eased by Pelosi’s words on not getting Uber-Liberal on us. I think their conservative Liberal agenda, seemingly more centrist than left, will actually move towards making some important
objectives in the progressive agenda forward.

Back in the Clinton’s first 2-year stretch, being overly ambitious was one of the major faults listed of himself and his party. Over-reaching in the first 100 days/2 years,
even with the amount of seats they had, killed their agenda and the whole thing went down the drain. Nothing got done.

I think that there are actual limits to what can be done in government, and that that is a good thing; One of our system’s most attractive features. Moving quickly is not one of the best characteristics for a system to have when it determines such measures that will permanently, and possibly irreparably, affect a society. In our political system, the government has the very large responsibility of assisting society guide  the whole of itself. Moving one part’s agenda faster than the rest is unfair and, most importantly, threatens to disrupt the cohesiveness of the whole.

I’m looking forward to seeing what
actually gets done in the next few years. I’d like to see the following accomplished, and in this order:

• Get an Iraq Exit Strategy, already!
• Make serious in-roads towards Energy Independence.
• A *reasonable* Health Care system would not be out of
  reach. Although it would definitely not go as far as Canada, it would
  be good to stretch it further towards that goal from the point at which
  it is now.
• Improve public education in Math & Science. (Only serious bills need apply.)
• Raise
  the minimum wage to a decent amount, with (probably) economic
  assistance for small businesses (who would be the one’s hard-hit when
  shelling out the extra cash.)
• A ‘Guest Worker’ program would be good.

Beyond that, I think would be a over-reaching at this time in government. WIth that said, I’m looking forward to these next couple of years, and with special interest towards the election in ‘08.

Let’s hear it for Sacha Baron Cohen’s unbelievably unencumbered Kazakhstani humor.

Sing it with me, you know the words!

A NY Times article on Saturday reported on the latest fad of Maine National Guardsmen: Providing photo replicas of deployed parents to their children.

I find it hard to believe that this helps the situation, but maybe laughter is the best medicine to treat this unique type of heartache.

Here’s the (belated) highlights of my vacation back home to visit family in Vancouver & Victoria, British Columbia, and Friday Harbor, Wa.

The Onion reports,
"Eighty-seven percent of Americans are ‘ill-equipped’ to deal with
solar flares, giant comets, and an all-engulfing Armageddon borne out
of God’s wrath."

Bummer.

That’s right, the Borowitz Report has broke the happy news to its subscribers with this gem of a parody.

So says Monticello Explorer while doubly acknowledging their Webby Award for Cultural Institutions and keeping their acceptance speech within the required five-word maximum. (For a good time, read them all here.)

Some quick favs:

• Big Ideas Come From Big Pencils:  "I have a big pencil."

          ***A must-see website!***

• TripAdvisor:  "Because some hotels really suck."
• Bebo:  "In your face, My Space."
• NewYorker:  "Usus telius. Perplext and thrilled."
• BabyCenter:  "Baby center – You push, we deliver"
• NPR:  "The democracy needs more truth."
• Stackopolis:  "I’ll be at the bar."

This just in from Thomas Friedman, Person of the Year: "The world is really flat."