Are you better off with less income or wealth, if everyone else has less income or wealth than you do?

Question

Say you are making 100,000 a year, and all of your neighbors and friends make 85,000 a year. Would you prefer that to all of your friends and neighbors making 200,000 a year if you could make 120,000 a year (assuming no change in purchasing power per unit of currency)? In the latter scenario, everyone you know makes more than you do, but everyone is able to buy more stuff. In the former scenario, you make more than everyone, but everyone can buy less stuff, including yourself.

So who's going to say that they're shallow enough to take less just so they can have more relative to everyone else? Dr Wheelan does: http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/article/economist/19750

Would you like a smaller pie with less for even you as long as everyone else gets less than you?

My answer is that a bigger pie is better for everybody, because everyone gets more, and people should be content and not covet other people's wealth.

If this is a good question, gimme a thumbs up. Thank you.

Answer 1

I like neither suggestion.

I only want everybody to make as much as they can to satisfy their needs and then have some left over for luxuries.

The trouble is that some people think that they need ten grand to be satisfied. Others need ten million.

The bottom line is that I don't need to take less so that they can have more.

However, I will give you a thumbs up. It is a good question because it makes people think about their priorities in life. That's always a good thing.