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In a word, yes.
I know this because I am happy even though I haven't won the lottery or received some other large chunk of change. I also know that if I were not happy irrespective of money, winning the lottery would not bring me happiness. But winning the lottery could also bring a happy person much misery.
There seem to be contradiction in that bundle of statements I just made. Let me explain why I believe them to be true. Rich people in the United States are more likely to report that they are happy than poorer people.
In the United States, about 90 percent of people in households making at least $250,000 a year called themselves “very happy” in a recent Gallup Poll. In households with income below $30,000, only 42 percent of people gave that answer.
It seems therefore that more money = more happiness, right? Not so much. There are two factors in those numbers that matter. First, it is income that is reported not how much money one has. Higher incomes are perceived by many Americans as a measure of their success and thus are related to happiness. Also, these incomes are relative to standards of living in the U.S.. Other studies show that once you have enough income to meet your needs, happiness doesn't increase significantly with income. Therefore in some countries where the cost of living is much lower, a larger percentage of those with incomes of $30,000 report happiness.
America is the richest country in the world yet we are nowhere near the happiest. That status goes to Denmark for two main reasons: social services and social life.
The happiest people in the world pay some of the highest taxes in the world -- between 50 percent and 70 percent of their incomes. In exchange, the government covers all health care and education, and spends more on children and the elderly than any country in the world per capita. With just 5.5 million people, the system is efficient, and people feel "tryghed" -- the Danish word for "tucked in" -- like a snug child.
Those high taxes have another effect. Since a banker can end up taking home as much money as an artist, people don't chose careers based on income or status. "They have this thing called 'Jante-lov,' which essentially says, 'You're no better then anybody else,'" said Buettner. "A garbage man can live in a middle-class neighborhood and hold his head high." ...
Josef Bourbon, a carpenter's apprentice, is also happy with his choice of career and enjoys the work. "I think it's about building something, seeing what you've worked on the whole day -- you can see what you've done," he said. On weekends he likes fish and hunt or play with his new puppy.
Bourbon is another example of Denmark's unusual social structure, because he happens to be a prince. Descended from a Danish king and related to the royal houses of both Spain and France, Bourbon has chosen to be a carpenter's apprentice, and he rarely discusses his lineage with anyone. Not even with potential dates when he's out on the town.
In all likelihood, Bourbon will probably just keep up his current cozy social life, hanging around with friends and family who live nearby. Danes even have a name for these kind of gatherings, calling these intimate and spontaneous get-togethers 'hygge' (pronounced "hoogey").
If you're looking for a lottery win to bring happiness you might be better off seeing if you could win some kind of lottery for friends. More and better relationships are one of the biggest factors in ones happiness.
So it seems pretty clear to me that winning the lottery can't bring happiness if you don't know how to find it before winning. Take for example the subject of the 2005 documentary, Reversal of Fortune. A homeless man is given $100,000. Rather than the money bringing him happiness, it brings him a life no happier and in some ways harder than his life on the streets to which he eventually returns. And tales of lottery winners who ruin their lives and go bankrupt are legend.
Jack Whittaker is perhaps the most spectacular example of a lottery winner who is much unhappier because of the money. After winning the largest lottery jackpot ever - $314 million - in just a couple of years the lives of he, his family and friends were in shambles and his
