# In an op-ed, Prof. Adam Alter discusses the disconnect between wealth and a meaningful life

1 Faculty News January 24, 2014 ![The New Yorker logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_032750.jpg?itok=hERliZMl)>

Excerpt from [The New Yorker](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2014/01/poorer-nations-more-meaningful-lives.html) -- "But, if wealth fostered happiness, it appeared to drain meaningfulness. Between ninety-five and a hundred per cent of the respondents from poverty-stricken Sierra Leone, Togo, Kyrgyzstan, Chad, and Ethiopia reported leading meaningful lives. Only two-thirds of the respondents in Japan, France, and Spain believed their lives had meaning."

[Read more](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2014/01/poorer-nations-more-meaningful-lives.html)