"You don't seem to realize that a poor person who is unhappy is in a better position than a rich person who is unhappy. Because the poor person has hope. He thinks money would help."
-Jean Kerr
-Jean Kerr
Separately, if someone said that your take is "complete anti-scientific hogwash only poor people would repeat," would you think their opinion valid?
Here is the study by the late great Kahneman:
Kahneman, D. & Deaton, A. (2010). High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011492107
And a 2021 follow-up that addresses criticisms of the original (TLDR: if you were already happy, you get more happy > 75K. If you were unhappy, you don't get more happy > 75K.)
Killingsworth, Kahneman, M.A. (2021). Experienced well-being rises with income, even above $75,000 per year. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2016976118
And the HN thread when the study first dropped: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1381927
What the hell does science have to do with this? Please stop conflating regression analysis of the results of a questionnaire with "science".