That's an externality that the happiness literature is big on. While envy may contribute to unhappiness, I doubt it's decisive. I mean, somebody has to be predisposed to enviousness, for someone else's consumption to make them unhappy. If I'm a zen buddhist, your luxury consumption doesn't bother me a bit.
Scitovsky also talks about the intrinsic satisfaction people gain from work, friendship, etc. but that aren't counted in the economist's measurement of market exchanges and other monetary transfers. Envy just fills a void created by the absence or abridgement of those intrinsic satisfactions. On 3/26/07, Michael Perelman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The big externality is that your luxury consumption makes other people envious, and thus less happy.
Sandwichman -- Sandwichman
