How much money do you need to lead your “absolutely ideal life”? The answer for most people, according to new research by college psychologists, is $ 10 million (£ 8.6 million), but not the US, who say they need at least $ 100 million. and they often insist on $ 100 million.
Academics at the universities of Bath, Bath Spa and Exeter found that, contrary to the assumption that everyone wants to be as rich as possible, most people say they would be happy with a few million.
A study of nearly 8,000 people around the world found that in 86% of countries most people thought they could achieve their ideal life with $ 10 million or less.
Lottery prize table
In Argentina, India and Russia, more than 50% of people said they would want $ 1 million or less. However, in the United States most people said they would need at least $ 100 million or more to lead an ideal life, with 31.7% (the most popular answer) saying they would like at least $ 100 million .
In the UK, the most popular answer (26%) was $ 1 million and most said $ 10 million or less would be appropriate. Thirteen percent said they would want $ 100 billion or more.
“A foundational economic principle that everyone is motivated by ‘unlimited desires’, clinging to a consumerist treadmill and striving to accumulate as much wealth as they can, is false,” the study, published in Nature Sustainability, said. “[The] the belief in this principle has also had disastrous consequences for the health of the planet. The effort to continually increase individual wealth and the pursuit of endless economic growth has come at a high cost. As wealth has increased, so has resource use and pollution. “
Dr. Paul Bain, principal investigator and lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath, said that while the typical answer figures sound like a lot of money, “when they are considered to represent a person’s ideal wealth. as a whole, life is relatively moderate. “
“The ideology of unlimited desires, when presented as human nature, can create social pressure for people to buy more than they really want,” he said. “Finding that most people’s ideal lives are actually quite moderate could make it easier for people to behave more socially in line with what makes them truly happy, and to support stronger policies to help safeguard planet “.
Dr. Renata Bongiorno, co-author of the report and a social psychologist at Bath Spa University and the University of Exeter, said: “The results are a compelling reminder that the majority view is not necessarily reflected in policies that allow accumulation of excessive amounts.of the wealth of a small number of individuals.
“If most people are struggling for limited wealth, policies that support people’s most limited desires, such as a wealth tax to fund sustainability initiatives, could be more popular than is often described.” .
A growing coalition of politicians and opinion leaders is calling for the introduction of wealth taxes around the world to help close the “amazing” gap between the richest and poorest in society.
Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has called on the UK government to impose a wealth tax on the super-rich to help tackle “spiral inequality”, which he said was “deeply detrimental to our collective morale and trust. “
“Spiral inequality is a major problem in our society, and all the evidence suggests that this is deeply detrimental to our collective morale and trust,” Williams said. “A wealth tax of the kind we are supporting recognizes that very disproportionate rewards for a very small number of citizens will not allow for a cohesive and just national community.”
Williams told the super-rich they should not see the return to society at large as a tax burden, but as “an opportunity to build a stable and sustainable economy that works for everyone.”
Sign up for your Daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk
Government figures show that the richest 1% of households in the UK have at least £ 3.6 million. At the other end of the scale, the poorest 10% of households have £ 15,400 or less, with almost half loaded with more debt than assets, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
A wealth tax of up to 1% could generate at least £ 70 billion a year, according to research from the University of Greenwich. This would be equivalent to 8% of the current total tax revenue, but would only affect about 250,000 households.
The Wealth Tax Commission, set up in 2020 to consider the costs and benefits of imposing a wealth tax, recommended a single 1% tax on households with more than £ 1 million . He said the tax would generate £ 260 billion, more than enough to cover one-year NHS funding and social care spending.