From Freakonomics, a link to an article about the links between economics and general satisfaction with life across many countries.

The money shot for me was this:

"More generally, Helliwell says that people tend to overestimate the amount of satisfaction they will get from material things and underestimate the satisfaction they derive from human connections."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Buddha, Mohammed, and Jesus all say that, too?

The article also went on to say that amount of time "socializing with friends" correlated highly with that country's well-being index. Hmmmm, I guess that means I need to call up someone for a happy hour date....