THE RICH AREN'T THAT MUCH HAPPIER. So says Tyler Cowen in a New York Times opinion piece which argues that income inequality in the United States isn't such a bad thing, really. Cowen presents many arguments but the one I want to highlight here is the idea that inequality in happiness is not as great as inequality in income, and, my friends, it is happiness that really counts! Cowen states : A man earning $500,000 a year is not usually 10 times as happy as a man earning $50,000 a year." Perhaps not. Who knows, really, given that interpersonal comparisons and the very measurement of happiness are fraught with all sorts of problems? I myself would prefer to cry in a Rolls-Royce if cry I must, actually, but I get the point Cowen is trying to make: Money may not make you happier, so no need to envy the rich or to worry about income inequality. Funnily enough, Cowen's argument also works in the opposite direction: If increasing income produces smaller and smaller increases in happiness...