David G. Blanchflower and Andrew J. Oswald have written a paper called "Money, Sex and Happiness: An Empirical Study."

You can purchase the paper yourself from Social Science Research Network (I did), but the Atlanta Journal Constitution ran a nice summary of some of the findings.

They compared sexual frequency factored with several other variables with self-reported levels of well being and happiness and came to the estimation (among others) that increasing frequency of sex to once a week over once a month is the happiness equivalent of getting a $50,000/year raise.

The equation is kind of cool:
r = h(u(y, s, z, t)) + e

r = self-reported level on satisfaction or happiness level
u(...) is true well being, or utility
h(.) is a function relating actual to reported well-being
y is real income
s is sexual activity
z is a set of demographics and characteristics
t is the time period
e is error.

I haven't finished reading the report, but the AJC article says they also found that a long lasting marriage offers about $100,000 worth of happiness a year.

So, right there, on top of my real salary, I've got $150,000 a year of happiness going for me. And I generally have sex twice a week, so maybe that figures like a really good Christmas bonus of happiness.

Another conclusion: "Sex seems to have disproportionately strong effects on the happiness of highly educated people."

That's because nerds are always happy to get sex. We are very appreciative of getting laid.

"Income has no effect. Money buys neither more sexual partners nor more sex."

Ha-HA! to rich Republicans. No wonder you're so bitter and mean.

And, just to be fair, the authors note that their findings should be treated cautiously.

That's because happiness is worth way more than money.

Tomorrow I'm off for a press junket. It's not far from here, so Deb may come and stay with me on Tuesday night (though she keeps saying "probably not"), and Three is going to stay with me on Thursday night. This will be our first sleepover. I'm hoping I won't be bleeding. Not an insurmountable problem, but still it would suck. I did invite Sara first, but she would've had to take a day off from work and didn't think it was feasable. Three, being unemployed right now, has some free time. And Wednesday is her last night of class, so a good enough reason to celebrate.

Time for me to head out, campers. I may post to the blog from the road.

Moving on - 12:11 p.m. , 2007-08-14

Where the hell have I been? - 12:10 p.m. , 2007-02-19

Holy shit! - 2:24 p.m. , 2006-01-11

Stuffing recipe - 6:17 p.m. , 2005-12-13

Good Life Update - 10:22 a.m. , 2005-11-11