Does money brings happiness or not

I think this is one of the oldest questions... Does money brings in Happiness? real Happiness??

So first let us question what is real happiness.. I think everyone agrees that happiness is state of mind.. we could be happy with simple running behind bike tire with a stick or with latest and greatest Wii Game... or working passionately too hard or watching TV... or may be not.. For some it could be in mountains, jungles, rivers, nature.. for some it could be in bustling city corner in Starbucks.. for some it could be 4-5 dolars income at the end of the day.. for some it could be millions of dollars of bonus.. for some it could be helping sick/elderly.. for some it could be just plain old violent games or actions.. I think everyone in this world is different and has different index or criteria for their happiness..  it all depends from where  you are coming..

One thing is common.. it will be difficult to be happy while you are hungry.. while you are cold.. or extremely warm/hot.. or don't have place to sleep (does it remind you off India's poverty line definition). you do need money.. at least some money.. generally speaking more money is considered better for so called quality of life.. So no wonder the results were inline with higher per capita GDP. Usually higher the per capita GDP of nations higher the chances of better infrastructure to support higher quality of life..

Does more money bring more happiness? Economists have been arguing over the question for decades (and everybody else has been arguing over it forever).

Economist Justin Wolfers of the Wharton School, has spent hours poring over happiness surveys from 155 countries across the globe, and he says the data is clear:

The relationship between satisfaction, these measures of well-being and measures of average income, which would be gross domestic product per capita, is incredibly robust.

In other words, more money means more happiness.

Also.. lot of it depends on whom you are asking this question and when..

Here is the podcast on NPR I am referring to...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/03/09/134370052/the-tuesday-podcast-money-buys-happiness

Also searched google/amazon and found two contradicting books on this topic:

One year Anniversary of oil Gulf Oil Spill or I should say Drama

Interesting to note that most of the news channel are busy talking and interviewing people who complains about not being properly compensated rather than focussing on actual damage itself. Funny part is that most of people are unhappy about compensation paid by BP. As per them, BP officials are too stingy and are asking too many papers on top of grabbing ability to sue BP. So they don't want to sign or get money from them. I think hopes are that they might be able to extract more money from BP later on by suing them. Which is fine I think.

I guess, focus of this drama is ultimately money instead of initial cry about damage to nature and our mother earth. Such a pity.. and shame.. However, who knows, If I were in their situation, I would have also been thinking about myself first than about anything else.

I hope US government and Obama administration will try to keep focus on it as natural disaster and continue to monitor and evaluate damage to nature and ecology due to this disaster. Remember guys, we need to focus on bigger picture rather than immediate short term benefits!!