I suspect one of the main things you'd figure out is that wealthy people are inefficiently turning their wealth into well being. I know some people with generational wealth who don't seem to be significantly more happy than your average Joe. OTOH there's also going to be a lot of poor people that we can justify in not helping as they are already happier than you'd think from a consumption point of view. Indeed people I know at the bottom of the income scale don't seem to be any different in terms of perceived well being.
There's been some research I've heard of in the area about people who won the lottery or have some life altering accident, somehow nothing changes how happy they are in the long run. Wonder if the evidence still supports that.
It makes sense that when you take consumption into overdrive, you don't gain much happiness. You can pay a 1000$ for a meal, but it won't taste a 100 times better than my 10$ meal.
You can build a house with 20 bedrooms but you can still only sleep in one, and you've just created a new problem to manage: cleaning all of them.
You can buy a 1$ million car but it's not a 100 times more comfortable or faster, nor does it do anything in a traffic jam. It'll bore you after 2 weeks as it becomes the new normal.
There's been some research I've heard of in the area about people who won the lottery or have some life altering accident, somehow nothing changes how happy they are in the long run. Wonder if the evidence still supports that.