Money does not make happiness

Rising living standards do not mean that people feel more satisfied with life. But much of the poverty reduction program is focused on increasing people's income levels.

According to Science Daily , poverty reduction is one of the major undertakings in the economic development process of many countries. So far, the focus of poverty reduction programs has always been to increase people's purchasing power. People always think that the poor will feel more satisfied when their income levels increase. But Professor Mariano Rojas, a researcher at the Latin American Academy of Social Sciences, thinks that notion is wrong.

To prove, Rojas conducted a survey throughout Costa Rica for 2 years. He asked thousands of people about income, level of satisfaction about life, family relationships, living environment, health status, work and many other things.

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The results showed that most participants confirmed that they felt happy. However, only 24% of the poor feel dissatisfied with life. Meanwhile, 18% of people with medium and high incomes have similar feelings. Rojas divided the participants into the " poor " and " non-poor " surveys based on several criteria of the Latin American Academy of Social Sciences.

Thus, it is clear that poverty does not necessarily lead to feelings of dissatisfaction. There will be many people out of poverty, the level of satisfaction with life will not increase. Conversely, an individual may be satisfied with life even if his or her income is low, as long as he (or she) feels satisfied about other aspects of life such as family, health, work. .

Professor Rojas said social programs should aim at improving many aspects of life, not just income. When designing such programs, one should pay attention to many factors, including entertainment, education, community relations skills and even how to spend money.

'My research shows that escaping poverty is unlikely to bring happiness to people. Higher income does not mean happiness for everyone. Money is only a means for us to reach a sense of satisfaction . In addition to raising the standard of living for the poor, we also need to pay attention to efforts to improve some of the skills needed to make them feel more satisfied with life , 'he told Science Daily.