Dismal science

For people who wish there were more hours in the day, spending a bit of money to get rid of onerous tasks would make them much happier, but researchers say very few actually make the investment.

A study by the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has found buying time makes people happier than buying material things.

Material things can be shown off to accrue status points but here the amount of money to be spent was just $40. Even then people bought stuff instead of relaxation.

This general behavior has puzzled me. For example, I've seen many people who shop around and then buy a super-cheap laptop which they need for their work. Of course, cheap laptops are old, slow, low quality and come with a warranty that ends a few days before the laptop expires. Then, later these same people blow away thousands of dollars on a vacation that barely lasts a week.

These folks aren't poor but their spending patterns make their life, overall, miserable.