Does money make you happy? (specifically: absolute spending power)

...according to many surveys taken in rich countries [...] once a country has lifted itself out of poverty, further rises in income seem not to create a meaningful rise in the proportion of people who count themselves as happy. Since the 1950s, for example, the proportion of Americans who tell pollsters that they are “very happy” has stayed constant at around 30%, while the proportion who say that they are “not very happy” has barely fallen.

In poor societies where individuals lack the necessary income to provide for their basic needs for food, shelter, and freedom from danger, an increase in income is likely to make people happier no matter how much their neighbors' incomes also increase. But once income becomes largely a status marker... Rich Americans tend to be happier than poor Americans, yet the average American is no happier now than three decades ago, when incomes were lower.

These are things that are the object of worldly interest, to be sensed, handled and tasted; these are the things that attract one, that bind one to the external world ... where, owing to the procreative force of lust, there arise all kinds of disaster, birth, sorrow, lamentation, pain, despair, disease, old age, death. All these things concern worldly interests and enjoyment; they lie along the path of the philosophers, which is not the path of the Dharma [and therefore happiness].

What I know for sure is that it's only when you make the process your goal that the big dream can follow. ...[However] your dream may have nothing to do with tangible prosperity and everything to do with creating a life filled with joy, one with no regrets and a clear conscience. I've learned that wealth is a tool that gives you choices, but it can't compensate for a life not fully lived and it certainly can't create a sense of peace within you.