To the extent that happiness can be measured, the rich are the most happy demographic. This doesn't mean that they can't be unhappy about things or even that there are special kinds of unhappiness that are specific to bring rich but it just doesn't measure up to the amount and intensity of unsound that are felt by the poor. Actions prove this as well. If being rich makes you unhappy you can stop being rich quite easily by giving your money away, yet very few rich people do this. In the other hand plenty of people who are not rich try desperately to become rich.
Yet still we hear the trope of the unhappy rich versus the happy salt of the earth common people all the time. I think it serves two purposes.
For the rich themselves it tickles their persecution fetish and enforces their narcissism. Most of them have severely suppressed their natural empathy in order to live with themselves and as such their own emotions outshines those of everyone else and they believe that their own unhappiness is the most intense unhappiness of all. It also serves to justify their power and privilege; if just the unwashed masses knew how hard they had it they wouldn't envy them so much. So of course the rich like this trope and since it is rich people who controls mass media and cultural institutions, the trope of the unhappy rich will receive plenty of airtime.
For the broader public it serves another purpose. You have this upper class of rich buffoons who are no better than you are yourself, yet they get to live in unimaginable luxury while you struggle to make rent. And you can't do anything about it, a lifetime of neoliberalism has made sure of that. Hell, most people can't even imagine that you could have a world without a bourgeoisie lording over people. This injustice is painful so of course you become susceptible to a "sour grapes" kind of thinking as a cooling mechanism. You can't get rid of the rich, you can't get rich yourself, but at least you can find comfort in believing that they are actually miserable and that you are the lucky one.
To the extent that happiness can be measured, the rich are the most happy demographic. This doesn't mean that they can't be unhappy about things or even that there are special kinds of unhappiness that are specific to bring rich but it just doesn't measure up to the amount and intensity of unsound that are felt by the poor. Actions prove this as well. If being rich makes you unhappy you can stop being rich quite easily by giving your money away, yet very few rich people do this. In the other hand plenty of people who are not rich try desperately to become rich.
Yet still we hear the trope of the unhappy rich versus the happy salt of the earth common people all the time. I think it serves two purposes.
For the rich themselves it tickles their persecution fetish and enforces their narcissism. Most of them have severely suppressed their natural empathy in order to live with themselves and as such their own emotions outshines those of everyone else and they believe that their own unhappiness is the most intense unhappiness of all. It also serves to justify their power and privilege; if just the unwashed masses knew how hard they had it they wouldn't envy them so much. So of course the rich like this trope and since it is rich people who controls mass media and cultural institutions, the trope of the unhappy rich will receive plenty of airtime.
For the broader public it serves another purpose. You have this upper class of rich buffoons who are no better than you are yourself, yet they get to live in unimaginable luxury while you struggle to make rent. And you can't do anything about it, a lifetime of neoliberalism has made sure of that. Hell, most people can't even imagine that you could have a world without a bourgeoisie lording over people. This injustice is painful so of course you become susceptible to a "sour grapes" kind of thinking as a cooling mechanism. You can't get rid of the rich, you can't get rich yourself, but at least you can find comfort in believing that they are actually miserable and that you are the lucky one.