[AnimalMuppet]

Freedom is the only missing piece holding them back from pursuing what they think will make them happy. That freedom makes them happy today, happy with the hope of tomorrow's happiness. But a number of people find that pursuing that thing (whatever it is for them) doesn't actually make them happy. Now they're less happy, because not only are they not happy, but their dream of future happiness has also died.

[jongjong]

I don't know about other people but certainly not for me. I was actually earning crypto passive income for 3 years not working and I was very happy. Now that income is gone, through no fault of my own (literally this was the best case scenario how it could have played out), and I now have to work for money again and I'm very unhappy.

I'm even more unhappy now because my life expectations are higher and I can't get to that level again until I'm 65...

Hearing people tell me this nonsense about money and happiness makes me even more miserable because my conclusion is "They don't appreciate money, yet they are given money... I very much appreciate money, yet I'm not given money..."

From my perspective, it seems almost like the system is only giving money to people who are incapable of appreciating it... Meanwhile I know from past evidence how I felt when I had money + time and that feeling was happiness. I knew it then, I know it now.

[t0mpr1c3]

You are experiencing one of the corollaries of the thesis in the OP. Material loss is experienced as unhappiness, no matter where you started on the distribution of wealth.

Another is that there is no satisfaction to be had in status comparisons. There will be always somebody who has more than you.