Easterlin Paradox

"The truth is that happiness is relative: It largely depends not on your own good fortune, but on how much richer people around you are.
Economist Richard Easterlin, now at the University of Southern California, has been trying to crack the happiness code for decades. In the 1970s, he developed the theory that has become known as the "Easterlin paradox," which argues that although people with higher incomes tend to report higher levels of life satisfaction, countries don't become generally more satisfied as they become richer."

The Renminbi Blues
by Joshua Keating
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/08/13/the_renminbi_blues