>>My sister works making pottery in South of France. I know her income is (at the moment) very small but I often think she has a better quality of life than me. I'm on a sort of money merry go round and its making me dizzy.
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>I was talking with someone yesterday about how it would be to be rich. Then we got thinking about how many rich people seem unhappy, and why. The only thing we could come up with is that they have no passions. If you have enough money that all your basic needs are taken care of, then how can you not be happy? If I suddenly had enough money, I would have plenty of things to make me happy.


You probably wouldn't. That is the grand delusion of modern American life, that money can buy happiness.

If this doesn't sound too pretentious, my observation of happy (and unhappy) people leads me to the analogy of a four legged stool. Happy people have lots of activity, lots of friends/lovers, lots of family, and lots of optimism about the future. Remove any of the four and the stool gets wobbly. Remove more than one and it's going down.