Relative Income Quotes

The level of real income is not what determines whether they are happy or not. It’s their relative place in the pecking order.

My brother is a policeman; my sister's an English teacher. When I hear what they make versus what I make, it's ridiculous.

Relative income uses two variables: the dollar and time, usually hours.

A wealthy man is one who earns $100 a year more than his wife's sister's husband.

Western Europe GDP per capita - not taking into account the new accession counties - was lower in 2001 relative to that of the US than any time since the 1960's.

Richness, the ideas of having plenty of money, is not ... an absolute state. Richness is about the amount of money you have compared to the people you see around you. It is about where you are in relation to others, and where they are in relation to you ... and whether you can have the things you want and other people have.

People would rather earn 60 grand in an area where their neighbours earn 40, than earn 80 in an area where their neighbours earn a hundred.

Obviously, I know there are players here who earn more than twice what I do. But that's not the issue for me.

Wealth - any income that is at least one hundred dollars more a year than the income of one's wife's sister's husband.

... a worker was seldom so much annoyed by what he got as by what he got in relation to his fellow workers.

The truth is that relative income is not directly related to happiness. Nonpartisan social-survey data clearly show that the big driver of happiness is earned success: a person's belief that he has created value in his life or the life of others.