That headline is a cliché, but a Syracuse University faculty member who crunches poll numbers is backing up that assumption with data. I asked Professor Arthur C. Brooks whether people who say they’re happy really are, and he backs up that belief with reports on brainwaves and such, If he’s right, what’s in his new book, Gross National Happiness (Basic), is important.

WOW: What do you mean by writing that “Happiness is a gift from above”?

ACB: Faith is an incredible predictor–and cause–of happiness. Religious people of all faiths are much, much happier than secularists, on average. In 2004, 43 percent of those who attended a house of worship at least once a week said they were “very happy” with their lives, versus 23 percent of those who attended seldom or never.

WOW: Later, you ask, “Does money buy happiness?” and arrive at some conclusions based on U.S. data but also comparisons between people in France and Mexico…

ACB: It probably isn’t too surprising to learn that money does not buy happiness. This is true as long as people are above the level of basic subsistence, which is true of virtually 100% of Americans. That’s one reason why America’s astounding economic prosperity, which is a wonderful thing and something I believe we should be deeply grateful for, hasn’t raised our happiness levels much over the past decades, on average. It also explains why a country like Mexico, which is a lot poorer than, say, France, can also be happier: In Mexico, 63 percent of adults said they were very happy or completely happy. In France, only 35 percent gave one of these responses.

WOW: According to your chapter on “the secret to buying happiness,” is it better to give or receive?

ACB: As a researcher, I always go where the data lead me. But I will confess to rejoicing a little every time I find that the data back up the Scriptures. Such is the case for charity. It is abundantly clear that when people give to others, they get happier, healthier, and even more financially prosperous.

WOW: Theologian Francis Schaeffer criticized Christians who make “personal peace and affluence” their goal. Keeping in mind the lives of Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, Jesus, and Paul, what kind of happiness should be our goal?

ACB: I can’t stress enough that according to all the evidence, shooting for affluence or material comforts as a source of happiness is an error. As we see in the life and teachings of Christ and the prophets, happiness comes from an exercise of our good values, including a focus on service to others. Proper values are what bring a happy, well-ordered life. These things also bring prosperity. But to try to get personal happiness from material affluence is like trying to build a tall skyscraper by starting with the top floor.

Know what a Collaterized Debt Obligation is? I’m going to ask the next few friends I talk to, just for fun. I’m guessing that the ones who don’t know are happier than the ones who do. Aw shucks, it’s just a guess.

There are different ways to be safe from a menacing wave at the seashore, and we discovered as kids that the best way by far was to duck under it. It’s counterintuitive at first, but it works.

Lack of wealth is a counterintuitive hedge fund against anxiety, but it certainly feels to me like insulation from the vicissitudes of “Marketplace’s” wildly bipolar emotions of “We’re in the Money” on Monday and “Stormy Weather” on Tuesday. Jesus wasn’t kidding when he said “Blessed are the poor.” Are not the markets the modern day “bruised reed” that if a man leans on pierces him? (Isaiah 36:6)

The wise man of Ecclesiastes concurs on the downside of too much money: “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income” (5:10). Besides which you can’t take it with you, and when you die you may leave it to a fool (2:18,19). For you youngsters, the wise man also suggests a better long-term financial strategy:

“There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (2:24,25)

I know scads of people who won’t lose any sleep tonight over Bear Stearns.

When I have eyes to survey the riches we often take for granted, I can’t help but recall this portion of the 30th chapter of Proverbs:

“Give me neither poverty nor riches;
Feed me with the food that is my portion,
That I not be full and deny You and say,
‘Who is the Lord?’
Or that I not be in want and steal,
And profane the name of my God”

I’m used to praying that my family won’t be impoverished. I read this proverb and think that we needn’t worry about the other end of the spectrum, that we are a long way from riches. But it occurs to me that we enjoy a living standard that is wealthy, compared to the rest of the world, and certainly to the writer of this proverb. We are full, we are fat and happy, and we are surrounded by distractions that invite us to say, not with our mouths but with our actions and inactions, “Who is the Lord?”

Immanuel is no less God with us when we find ourselves amidst plenty, but our attention is naturally lured, most of us, to trinkets and comforts. It makes me wonder if, when I am praying that poverty never befalls my family, I ought to pray that we see more clearly through our abundant blessings. This is an especially compelling notion as I consider the trash bags crammed into and around our trash can outside, stuffed with wrapping paper and food packaging.

When it comes to Christmas, we needn’t adopt stern asceticism, any more than we should depend on good works to save our souls. We are liberated to rejoice in wealth or hardship, I think, when we have given over our hearts neither to possessions nor their absence, but to the author and perfecter of faith.

Recently my seven year-old, Stephen Caleb, read a letter we received from the Ronald McDonald House, and decided to give them all the money he’s been saving toward a robot. Caleb loves robots. He’s been talking about buying a robot for a year, and saving his dollars. But instead of buying a robot, he handed over his robot money to the woman running the local Ronald McDonald House, and smiled as he did it.

To forfeit something we hold dear, absent a heart of giving, is despicable piety. Not to be inclined to give, meanwhile, is hardheartedness. But to give so freely is, with reference to the proverb, not to be over-full at all. It is to say, to a world that wants to forget: This is the Lord. I hope one day I can shine as brightly as this seven year-old boy.

Time is money for everyone: rich, poor, and in-between.  So, for the rich, they can save time by paying others to do things (mow the lawn) while they (the rich) are doing more valuable things (making more money than it takes to pay the lawn-mower).  We all do this to some extent, like in the lawn-mowing example, or when we pay people to wash our cars, or when we pay people for food.  But that’s too normal.  For something less than normal, check this out: it’s a gallery of jobs and professionals who give very specific service to the rich, including a Lady Who Reads the Menus of Where You’re Eating Later in the Week to Consult With You on What You Should Order.