Lets draw an hypothetical xy axis. On the up-down x-axis we will have a logarithmic scale of money
(income or wealth) from some minus number, through eleven orders of magnitude (-$1,000
to $10 billion.) The center will be average U.S. income or wealth.
On the left-right y-axis we plot happiness from 0 to 9; 5 in the middle. We can use self descriptions of whether an individual is a happy person; we can use evaluations from their friends, workmates, peers or family.
On this chart we can plot a thousand people or ten thousand people.
What do you picture the distribution of points to be?
I see a large cluster of points in the middle with no upward or downward tendency on either end.
To put it another way, there is no connection between money and happiness. Do you see this experiment any other way? Do you think people run their lives with this chart in mind?