There is a long and growing body of evidence that explains a large chunk of human behavior. We tend to measure ourselves against others, and we tend to feel worst when our position drops relative to others. This explains much of the doom and gloom we feel these days.

The article below starts with the obvious – that money can’t buy us happiness – but contains some nuggets that explain some more important concepts.

Wealth does not always add up to happinessHat tip to Bros. Judd

It’s true. Researchers have found that, once people can meet basic needs, psychological dividends from additional money steadily decrease. Making $100,000 does not make you twice as happy as making $50,000.

So why does losing money, and the prospect of losing money, make us so miserable?

The short answer is that it doesn’t have to. If you think about money in the context of what economics says about true fulfillment, having less of it shouldn’t be quite so painful.

Tell that to the Union Thugs who, at a time where entire states are going bankrupt due to their greed, refuse to even entertain cuts in their obscene pay and pension benefits. But I digress…

Wrapped up in the above little nugget of extreme wisdom, is the explanation of why most people will fight harder to avoid pain than to achieve pleasure. It is one of the reasons angry people stay angry, fat people tend to stay fat, and ignorant people tend to stay ignorant. It is also the reason we all clamor for “reform” to our friends, but elect the same corrupt hacks every election. (Yes Virgina, Obama is just as – or more – venal and corrupt as Bush, he just doles out goodies to different friends.)

The effort at actually changing is far more difficult/painful than most are willing to undertake. On the other hand, even though the benefits of “change” are great (ask any person who has permanently achieved weight loss), they are too distant for most to make the necessary effort.

An object in motion tends to remain in motion, and an object at rest tends to remain in bed.

It is possible to lead a full, meaningful, contented life without a Cadillac Escalade in the driveway or a second home in Aruba.

We knew this, of course. Jesus, Buddha, and others told us. We always forget it in the fat years and begin remembering when the rouge rubs off and the vanities go up in flames.

But now science proves it, more or less. A growing body of research suggests that money, if not the root of evil, is not the fount of satisfaction, either. And many of our feelings about money and financial loss are flat-out irrational.

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More recent investigation has found that the negative emotions that investors feel when losing money are more intense than their pleasure when gaining an equal amount.

Neither of which is rational. Your neighbor’s lifestyle, no matter how luxurious, has zero material effect on you. If you weren’t over the moon when the 401(k) went up $50,000, maybe you should not need therapy when it crashes by the same amount.

I keep trying to tell y’all that humans are NOT rational beings, but rationalizing beings. We tend to wish for a result, or we seek a comfortable worldview, and once chosen, all data must conform to that view. It isn’t rational to ignore our good fortune when we have it, but lament the drop in our net worth when it drops, but we do it anyway. To reverse this pathology – and yes, I DO see the people in the scenario below as bordering on mentally ill – the first thing we need to do is become conscious of it, and then reject it.

Last month, the New York Times illustrated the tendency to focus on relative wealth. Reporter Peg Tyre profiled a couple in Darien, Conn.

The husband lost a Wall Street job. The family economized by replacing a full-time nanny with an au pair and taking less-expensive vacations. They still resided in an upscale town, belonged to the country club, had paid off their mortgage, and had saved money for the children’s college.

Even accounting for setbacks, they lived better than 99 percent of everybody who ever existed. Yet they were stressed and worried.

In the grand scheme, money is less important than other assets anyway, happiness experts say. In the long run, friendship, marriage, education, sex, group memberships, and exercise all promote happiness in ways that mere income and consumption cannot.

Well Duh! So why are we, or, why have we become so materialistic? So focused on our “standing” relative to others? I blame much of it on the libertarian right’s and the Marxist Left’s insane focus on measuring human value in terms of material wealth. A good friend of mine says “Hey, money is just a way of keeping score.”

I’d argue that it is a lousy way of keeping score – stupid at best, evil at worst. I’m just as interested as the next guy in not having to worry about food, housing and heat. I also wouldn’t mind the lifestyle that allows me to travel where I want when I want to, or have access to the coolest toys. But I’m not so stupid as to feel bad about myself because I haven’t destroyed my mental and physical health chasing money.

More from this great book.

Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult–once we truly understand and accept it–then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.

Everything going wrong in our economy and culture right now, from fake easy loans, collapsing asset values, our obscenely expensive yet under-performing public schools, as well as private sector and public union greed, and even obesity- all of it – can be laid on the doorstep of a people who believe that “life should be easy.”

All the pharmaceuticals, bailouts, stimulus packages, or forced mortgage renegotiations in the world will not cheat that reality. The sooner we realize this, and stop “avoiding pain”, the sooner we will again be able to achieve the pleasure of a more just society.