A recent study claims that a person from Seville needs 105,000 euros a year to be happy. This figure, far higher than the local average salary, generates frustration. But the study has a clear bias: it was commissioned by a financial institution. It does not measure real happiness, but rather the threshold where the rich stop worrying about money. The press publishes it to generate clicks.
The algorithm of dissatisfaction: how your need is manufactured 📊
The data is obtained from small, biased samples of people with high purchasing power. With their basic needs covered, they report greater satisfaction. The study ignores that countries with lower average incomes than Spain have higher happiness indices. The citizen earning 20,000€ a year reads the news and feels frustrated. The figure of 105,000€ is arbitrary and seeks to normalize the idea that happiness can be bought, encouraging debt and acceptance of precarious jobs under the promise of a happy but unattainable future.
Pay 105,000€ or be unhappy (according to the bank) 💸
So now you know: if you earn less than 105,000€, your happiness is a statistical error. It doesn't matter if you have health, friends, or a good paella on Sundays. The study says you are emotionally poor. But don't worry, the bank offers you a loan to finance happiness over 30 years. After all, the mortgage on joy never fails. Or does it.