So a few people responded to last weeks post about Money = Happiness. (A side note, I love the email replies and responses on Facebook, but I’d love it even more if they were here, on the site 
) I gave it some thought and realized there is another aspect to the algabraic equation that may suggest money equals happiness.
The Law of Diminishing Returns
For those unfamiliar, the Law of Diminishing Returns was best explained to me this way:
Let’s say you’re moving. You try to move everything by yourself. Well, you can’t carry the couch by yourself, so you call a friend to help. One friend plus you can move more quickly than yourself. But you realize the two of you are great at moving the big stuff, but you’re neglecting the smaller stuff. So you call one more friend, who helps with the smaller stuff. Way more efficient. So you call another friend and they help with organizing the moving truck and another friend who starts cleaning the rooms you’ve cleared. More people = more efficient, so why not call 10 more people. Uh-oh, now it’s a “moving party”, but there’s more “party” than “moving” and nothing gets done. THAT is the Law of Diminishing Returns; when adding one more person actually makes the process LESS effective.
MORE Money <> Happiness
We must visit Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
For those unfamiliar, the idea is there are certain things you NEED. iPhone’s and Wii’s do not fit into this equation. You must first obtain the items lower on the pyramid before moving up. So yes, at a very basic level, money equals happiness. You need money to buy/grow food to eat to live, so without money, it would be a pretty miserable existence at that level. At a certain point however, I think at and above the Love/Belonging level, money is just a cover for the true “needs”. So we experience a diminishing return: more money can increase the fulfillment of physiological needs and safety needs, but less so in love/belonging needs, even less in esteem and really has no place in self-actualization.
That’s my $0.02 and if that has helped to bring you some additional happiness, feel free to let me know in the comments below
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What about the Law of Diminishing Returns Applied to Love and positive response? Just a thought? I don’t believe applying one more ounce of Love will yield diminishing returns on positive response. In fact, I believe it will have a direct relationship with positive response. Instead of kill them with kindness. Win them with love and kindness.
I would completely agree and thank you for that example.
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