Tell someone you got a new job, and the first thing they ask you will probably run along the lines of “good salary?”

That demonstrates a serious misplacement of priorities that runs deeply through modern culture

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Money is good.

But freedom and job satisfaction, science and common sense both agree, are more important in the long run — so important that it’s often worth taking a little less money to get a little more freedom.

The Limits of Income

You can make just about however much money you want to, if you’re willing to work hard at it. The sky really is the limit, and we have our ultra-wealthy (whose distance from lesser earners just keeps growing every year) to prove it.

But here’s a flip side to that: past a certain threshold, referred to by social scientists and economists as the “comfortable standard” level, gains in income do not increase reported happiness in any measurable way!

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