> Plenty of people are happier with nicer things.

Are they truly happier, in the sense of being more content? Or are they just deriving more temporary pleasure from the hedonic treadmill they're on?

You can probably tell which one it is, by how long their happiness with their house / car / TV / fill-in-the-blank lasts, before they start thinking about trading up to an even nicer fill-in-the-blank.

Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard wrote a great book on happiness, here's an excerpt I enjoy which talks about the difference between pleasure and happiness, in two parts. [1] [2]

1. https://www.matthieuricard.org/en/pleasure-and-happiness-the...

2. https://www.matthieuricard.org/en/pleasure-and-happiness-the...

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pm90 an hour ago | parent [-]

This is a deeply personal decision and I categorically reject any kind of moralization around frugality.

	▲	toomanyrichies 22 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Fair enough on the personal decision part. I'm less interested in telling people what to do and more interested in whether the premise ('nicer things = happier') actually tracks with how human satisfaction works. The research suggests it often doesn't, which seems worth knowing regardless of what you choose to do with that information. [1] 1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/690806/