Charlie Munger, a billionaire, thinks we should all be a lot happier.

“I don’t understand why people today aren’t more content with what they have, especially compared to harder times throughout history,” says Munger, the longtime investment partner and friend of fellow billionaire Warren Buffett.
“Despite the fact that things are way tougher now than they were before, people are less happy about the state of affairs,” Munger said earlier this year at the annual meeting of the Daily Journal, the newspaper company where he’s a director.
“It’s weird for somebody my age,” the 98-year-old noted, “because I was in the middle of the Great Depression when the hardship was unbelievable. Americans everywhere were struggling.”
At that annual meeting, Munger said that envy is a motivator for too many people today. ”
“Life was pretty brutal, short, limited, and what have you for thousands of years prior to the early 1800s.” “There was no printing press, no air conditioning, no modern medicine,” he said.
Munger’s sense of widespread envy in today’s world might be right on the money, as recent studies show that roughly 75% of people are envious of someone else in any given year.
Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are often connecting us with people who only offer highly-curated peeks into the positive developments in their lives, which can spark feelings of envy or jealousy.
Munger pointed to the work of Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker at the meeting, who argued that the quality of life around the world has improved dramatically over the past century or two. He cited evidence such as longer life expectancies and reduced global poverty.
Pinker’s critics say he is too optimistic and doesn’t take into account all the negative aspects of modern life, such as wealth inequality, violence, and political instability.
In 2019, Munger downplayed the effects of wealth and income inequality, and claimed that the politicians who were “screaming about it are idiots.”
In recent years, some politicians, like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have called for tax increases on the ultra-wealthy. Those increases would likely subject Munger and his estimated net worth of $2.2 billion.
Skepticism about higher taxes on the wealthy has been expressed by the billionaire in the past, with an argument last year that some inequality is a necessary aspect of a free market economy. He said that most people’s concerns over wealth inequality and criticisms of the extremely wealthy were motivated by envy, at the Daily Journal’s annual meeting this year.
“Even though things have improved by 600%, there are still people who are unhappy and feel abused because somebody else has more,” Munger said.