What Counts as Success?

What Counts as Success?

This certainly isn't news, but a lot of people equate success with having a large bank account.  Is it, how large does it have to be before it counts as success?  According to a Princeton study that we went over in one of my MBA classes (see the abstract here) most people do gain happiness with more money, but!  Only up to ~$75,000 per year.  After that, while people evaluate themselves more positively, they don't actually get any happier.  Obviously mileage varies from person to person, but still.  Frankly this seems like a terrible set up to me.  The rich will try to become richer, but not actually enjoy it. And the poor won't be able to make much headway because all the money is being hoarded by the wealthy.  And you can see some of this in the increasing income gap between haves and have nots.

Changing this aspect of American culture would be challenging.  Americans are terrified of anything that even vaguely resembles socialism.  Also, capitalism has done many good things and is a primary reason for the high quality of living found in the US.  But maybe it's time we applied some tweaks. A good step in that direction is increasing the minimum wage, which some states and cities have done. In order for an economy to do well money must flow through it.  If the average American worker can't buy anything beyond necessities, then companies making things beyond necessities can't make any money.  If they can't make money they have to lay people off.  People who are laid off can't buy things and then the circle begins again only with a worse economy for every iteration.  We're a few rounds through the circle, and it sucks.  When saying we're a few rounds in I am including rounds of government stimulus meant to encourage business and spending (for example the $200 or so every person received several years ago, bailouts for businesses, government sponsored job programs such as in the energy sector (solar power for the win!), etc.  Some of the results?  A lower credit rating for the US, a large movement into the service sector (there are more jobs after stimulus etc, but at least the plurality of them are service positions making $15/hr or less), and a continually lagging housing market.  None of that is good.  So, more money needs to go from corporations to employees or eventually there won't employees, a company, or a country with a high standard of living.