Daniel Gilbert Stumbling On Happiness Analysis

According to the excerpt provided, from "Stumbling on Happiness" by Daniel Gilbert, in the first paragraph, it says: "...they have generally concluded that wealth increases human happiness when it lifts people out of abject poverty and into the middle class but that it does little to increase happiness thereafter". The main point of this excerpt is conveying, is that being wealthy, does not mean you are happy, or does not mean you will be. If anything, it just gives you a sense of happiness and relief to become wealthy after being poor. Yet, if your wealthy from the start, that does little to no change in making you or keeping you happy. In the excerpt, economist explain that wealth has"declining marginal utility," which is a fancy way of saying

Market economies require that we all have an insatiable hunger for stuff, and if everyone were content with the stuff they had, then the economy would grind to a halt. But if this is a significant economic problem, it is not a significant personal problem," It is clear that what the key point here is there has to be a difference in education, and status level within society to realistically keep the world running. If everyone had what everyone else did, and were at the same level, there would be no balance in the economy. For example, not everyone can become a doctor because we need people taking our order every Friday night when we get pizza. And not everybody could become a lawyer because we need police officers.

All in all, I do concur with what the author is portraying in his message about wealth and happiness. Everyone's level of happiness is different due to specific situations. Regardless of how much money you make, you will continue to yearn for more while loosing sight of everything, including happiness. Regardless of how poor you are, you will have hope to think that wealth is what it takes to be happy. I believe that money shouldn't be what makes you happy, but sadly, it