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(BusinessWeek) Interesting $75,000 a year. That's is the exact income amount you need for money to buy you happiness. Everybody below that? Bunch of angry assholes   (businessweek.com) divider line 176
More: Interesting, median household income, gross domestic products, National Institute of Mental Health, gratification, social scientists, american income, happiness, basic needs  
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21569 clicks; posted to Main » on 07 Sep 2010 at 1:05 AM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



176 Comments   (+0 »)
   

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2010-09-06 07:18:26 PM
fark you all!

/$25,000 a year
 
2010-09-06 07:25:02 PM
regardless of location?

hmm... let's see... $75k in manhattan vs. $75k in ottumwa, iowa. yep, same standard of living!
 
2010-09-06 07:48:35 PM
egardless of location?

hmm... let's see... $75k in manhattan vs. $75k in ottumwa, iowa. yep, same standard of living!


rtfa.
 
2010-09-06 08:35:16 PM
People compare themselves with those around them. Earning $75K in a blue collar neighborhood is a bit different than earning $75K in a neighborhood filled with doctors and lawyers.
 
2010-09-06 08:55:56 PM
I can then sponsor 15,000 Liters, bring them Happiness instead...
 
2010-09-06 08:58:23 PM
No wonder teabaggers are such happy people.
 
2010-09-06 09:02:16 PM
Depends on where you live and how many ex-wives you've got.

About $75/k/year/ex-wife + 75k/yr for the current one is about right.

/take it from me
//please
 
2010-09-06 09:33:14 PM
Fark you all! I hope when the zombies invade you all choke on your money as they eat your brains.
 
2010-09-06 09:42:57 PM
I'd be happy with that amount.
 
2010-09-06 09:48:23 PM
No wonder I'm ecstatic...
 
2010-09-06 09:54:23 PM
No sir, I require $76,052. Lump sum is fine.
 
2010-09-06 10:00:46 PM
So if I made $150k I'd be twice as happy?
 
2010-09-06 10:01:51 PM
While happiness increases along with annual household incomes up to about $75,000, beyond that, earning more money has no effect on day-to-day contentment, according to the study.

So, to rephrase the headline, you can only purchase $75,000 worth of happiness in a given year. You have to make the rest of it yourself.

Perhaps you should take a pottery class.
 
2010-09-06 10:06:16 PM
If I made $75k I would be homeless. Perhaps happy homeless but homeless none the less.
 
2010-09-06 10:29:23 PM
GaryPDX: Yea right. Try to put 2 children through college on 75k a year. Good luck.

On the front page of MIT's website at http://www.mit.edu -

"100% of MIT tuition is covered by scholarships and grants for families of undergraduates earning $75,000 or less."

Harvard is similar, and I believe most of the Ivy League is as well.
 
2010-09-06 10:32:17 PM
Woops! That statement is actually on the Financial Aid page at:
http://web.mit.edu/sfs/
 
2010-09-06 11:16:43 PM
But no one is seeing any prisons closing.

The justice and prison industry are rubbing their hands with anticipation of a bigger working class poor population. All of these prison documentaries on cable now, just familiarizing the public for their eventual experience being incarcerated.

More laws, more cameras, more jails.
 
2010-09-06 11:48:19 PM
$75K is not a lot of money in DC Metro. I found this out the hard way. Michigan's cost of living is significantly lower.

/who knew
 
2010-09-06 11:49:46 PM
GaryPDX: Yea right. Try to put 2 children through college on 75k a year. Good luck.

I believe the proper Fiscal Conservative™ response is: "Then don't have kids you can't afford, you broke piece of shiat."

/did I do it right?
 
wee [TotalFark]
2010-09-06 11:54:04 PM
FlashHarry: hmm... let's see... $75k in manhattan vs. $75k in ottumwa, iowa. yep, same standard of living!

Which is why I took my Silicon Valley salary to Arizona. Well, that and the fact that you can buy a 3,500 sq. ft. house on an acre of land for about 1/3 of what a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house on a 5,500 sq. ft. lot costs in the bay area. And state income tax is about half what it is in CA. And fewer hippies. And generally less annoyances.

Down side? shiattier produce and wine isn't as cheap. It's hotter a couple months out of the year. Even trade.
 
wee [TotalFark]
2010-09-06 11:56:21 PM
blackminded: I believe the proper Fiscal Conservative™ response is: "Then don't have kids you can't afford, you broke piece of shiat."

It would be nice if people could pay for what they do rather than rely on everyone else to carry their burden...

/did I not do it right?
 
2010-09-06 11:57:05 PM
GaryPDX: Yea right. Try to put 2 children through college on 75k a year. Good luck.

Say a 4-year school will cost $50k when all is said and done. That's $100k for 2 kids. Let's say you have twins, and you only start worrying about that when you have the kids. That's 18 years to save $100k. That's $5,555.55 a year, which is $213.68 per paycheck (assuming biweekly paychecks). That's quite doable for a responsible person.

Or you could get your kids to take out loans and pay for it themselves, or work hard in high school to get a scholarship, or go to a community college for most of the electives. It's not that hard.

/someone a couple weeks ago was complaining about putting 2 kids through school on $150k a year
 
2010-09-07 12:27:56 AM
Car_Ramrod: Or you could get your kids to take out loans and pay for it themselves, or work hard in high school to get a scholarship, or go to a community college for most of the electives. It's not that hard.

Or all three, which is what I did. I don't know about "It's not that hard," but it's doable. I realize some parents feel like it's their responsibility to pay for their children's education, but I didn't come from that kind of a family. Didn't appreciate it at the time.

Besides, what happened to "If you give someone a handout they have no motivation to work hard?" Aren't college age students adults? Isn't paying for their school a handout? The whole things sounds communist to me...
 
2010-09-07 12:50:21 AM
GaryPDX: Yea right. Try to put 2 children through college on 75k a year.

Gary you ignorant slut, you're supposed to say:

1. Don't have children you can't afford.
2. Let them learn a trade or go to community college.
3. The kids can pay their own way through school to teach them discipline.

Sending your kids to college on your dime is teaching them to be welfare parasites and LIBERALS!
 
2010-09-07 12:56:38 AM
Somebody's teaching his kids that Bootstrappiness is for other people.
 
2010-09-07 01:09:35 AM
blackminded: I believe the proper Fiscal Conservative™ response is: "Then don't have kids you can't afford, you broke piece of shiat."

/did I do it right?


You certainly read my mind.

And 75k sounds about right to me.
 
2010-09-07 01:09:39 AM
blackminded: GaryPDX: Yea right. Try to put 2 children through college on 75k a year. Good luck.

I believe the proper Fiscal Conservative™ response is: "Then don't have kids you can't afford, you broke piece of shiat."

/did I do it right?


Damn, if you could have only have told him before procreation we could have headed off a disaster.
 
2010-09-07 01:10:18 AM
Two of the best years of my life I was earning $7,000 a year.

Small house, garden, scooter, near the beach, and hundreds of female Thai university students.

Oooooh yeah.
 
2010-09-07 01:12:51 AM
Sooooooo....I guess I'm partially happy.
 
2010-09-07 01:13:20 AM
I live alone on a salary > 75k, but it is tough to do all the things needed on a single income. Any Farkettes making more than 60k/yr interested in a primarily economic relationship. No sex, no kids.
 
2010-09-07 01:16:15 AM
eddyatwork: GaryPDX: Yea right. Try to put 2 children through college on 75k a year.

Gary you ignorant slut, you're supposed to say:

1. Don't have children you can't afford.
2. Let them learn a trade or go to community college.
3. The kids can pay their own way through school to teach them discipline.

Sending your kids to college on your dime is teaching them to be welfare parasites and LIBERALS!


If Americans were limited to what they could afford, then we would have a shiatty economy full of angry people who are unable to do anything really fun. Like now. So, aside from the bigotry and fear of everything slightly off-white, they would be GaryPDX. :)

The article goes on about how money doesn't offer happiness on its own, but it also states something that I've been saying forever: you give Americans more money and better wages and you'll see a lot of happy Americans. You don't, expect higher taxes on the rich. Destroying the middle class also shows who is poor and who is rich. The rich wouldn't care for that distinction in the slightest.
 
2010-09-07 01:16:32 AM
rohar: Damn, if you could have only have told him before procreation we could have headed off a disaster.

We could have prevented at least two disasters if we kept GaryPDX from reproducing entirely.
 
2010-09-07 01:16:52 AM
I need to learn how to spend my money better.
 
2010-09-07 01:18:02 AM
I could fair quite nicely with a 75k salary.
/no kids
//no wife
///no mortgage or rent
 
2010-09-07 01:18:07 AM
nepidae: I need to learn how to spend my money better.

Might I suggest hookers and blow? I've never seen anyone unhappy when surrounded by hookers and blow.
 
2010-09-07 01:19:33 AM
I guess I could sort of agree with that. I make quite a lot more than $75K now, but I don't feel significantly happier than when I was about that level. For me the next big jump in day-to-day happiness would be when I have enough to forget altogether about saving money for the future, along with enough scratch to pick up a 599 GTO.
 
2010-09-07 01:22:58 AM
FTFA: Once per capita GDP rises to a point in which people are no longer struggling to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter and healthcare, additional increases in overall national wealth don't seem to make much of a difference in happiness, Maddux said.

So basically, once people aren't concerned with immediate day to day survival they are generally happier and feel better off?

Gosh! It's a good thing we have such highly educated people studying stuff like this! We'd never be able to figure this out on our own!

/on unemployment.
//just got back from the ER thanks to an infection on the back of my leg.
///even with my expensive personal health insurance, I'm not getting a kick...
 
2010-09-07 01:23:38 AM
Did TA RTFA?

"$75,000 is not a magical figure people need to achieve to be at their happiest," Maddux said. "The point is there is a threshold at which people probably are not going to be substantially happier if they keep making more money."

Useless data means nothing. More at ten.
 
2010-09-07 01:25:25 AM
But the very idea of criticizing the good-ole-boy network for setting each other's executive compensations at a thousand times that amount is SOSHULISM!
 
2010-09-07 01:27:23 AM
75k buys happiness in Douglas County CO(where the median household income is something like 75k and they have great schools and ridiculously low housing prices), but it doesn't buy enough Prozac to even attempt to be happy in So Cal
 
2010-09-07 01:28:13 AM
BuckTurgidson: But the very idea of criticizing the good-ole-boy network for setting each other's executive compensations at a thousand times that amount is SOSHULISM!

Those same executives control the media and are so happy they have permawood.

/whar tinfoil? whar?
 
2010-09-07 01:29:29 AM
bhcompy: 75k buys happiness in Douglas County CO(where the median household income is something like 75k and they have great schools and ridiculously low housing prices), but it doesn't buy enough Prozac to even attempt to be happy in So Cal


Hell, it would buy a ton of happiness in Douglas County, WA.
 
2010-09-07 01:29:51 AM
GaryPDX: Yea right. Try to put 2 children through college on 75k a year. Good luck.

Why do you feel the need to put your kids through college?
 
2010-09-07 01:30:00 AM
I looked it up because I was curious.

Maryland has the highest median household income of any state, with a median income of $70,545.

Damn. (new window)
 
2010-09-07 01:30:02 AM
blackminded: Car_Ramrod: Or you could get your kids to take out loans and pay for it themselves, or work hard in high school to get a scholarship, or go to a community college for most of the electives. It's not that hard.

Or all three, which is what I did. I don't know about "It's not that hard," but it's doable. I realize some parents feel like it's their responsibility to pay for their children's education, but I didn't come from that kind of a family. Didn't appreciate it at the time.

Besides, what happened to "If you give someone a handout they have no motivation to work hard?" Aren't college age students adults? Isn't paying for their school a handout? The whole things sounds communist to me...


I got a full scholarship (academic) to my local university.

I looked at it this way "Someone is *paying* me to go to college."

And then I treated it like a job. Showed up to every class (baring health or dangerous driving reasons), completed every assignment to the best of my ability, studied at the prescribed pace, got proper sleep and got proper nutrition.

/graduated with a 3.6
//had my son senior year
///still made the deans list
//already knew the value of hard work
 
2010-09-07 01:31:34 AM
blackminded: I looked it up because I was curious.

Maryland has the highest median household income of any state, with a median income of $70,545.

Damn. (new window)


So on average, they're not happy either? That's depressing, not that it changed my day any.
 
2010-09-07 01:31:52 AM
bhcompy: 75k buys happiness in Douglas County CO(where the median household income is something like 75k and they have great schools and ridiculously low housing prices), but it doesn't buy enough Prozac to even attempt to be happy in So Cal

I'd be happy with 75,000 in So Cal.
 
2010-09-07 01:32:50 AM
2/3rds of the way there and I don't live in a town with insane cost of living - just insane heat.
 
2010-09-07 01:33:03 AM
modern-day Babylon, indeed.
 
2010-09-07 01:36:08 AM
GaryPDX: Yea right. Try to put 2 children through college on 75k a year. Good luck.

Only a socialist would have two kids they can't afford to raise. You farking commie.
 
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