[geezer]

The Economist needs to understand the difference experiencing happiness and remembering happiness. Behavioral economists have done years of research differentiating the two. It makes no sense to talk about happiness otherwise.

The incomes in the range of 60k - 70k (in US) beyond which happiness plateaus out is valid in the context of experiencing happiness. Its fair to say that middle income people would be unhappy when they think about the fact that they are not millionaires/billionaires, but they are not thinking about that most of the time, and during that time, they are just as happy as millionaires/billionaires.