There has been an ongoing debate about reducing the financial gap among people to achieve a happier society. I firmly disagree with this view, as to keep citizens satisfied governments should provide them with higher standards of living rather than restricting their highest incomes.
To begin with, imposing limits on people’s incomes leads to undermining their long-term life satisfaction. The amount of money people earn should be based on their merits and hard-works. In this way, individuals become more motivated to strive for what they aspire to own, including spacious houses, expensive cars or designer goods. If governments impose regulations on people’s earnings, they will become demotivated to work hard to achieve their goals and may find their lives unfulfilling. For example, in capitalist societies, where people can receive significant salaries if they try hard, people usually find their lives more fulfilling. Therefore, it is essential for people to be able to set ambitious goals for themselves and try for them, as restricting their highest incomes may be associated with life dissatisfaction.
In addition, making societies more satisfied is dependent on other criteria rather than the financial gap between the richest and the poorest members. To keep people happy, governments should provide them with high standards of living, including equal education, accessible health insurance, affordable houses and public transportation. For example, in some developing countries people have limited access to education and purchasing houses is extremely costly. Reducing the financial gap among people of these countries does not lead to higher satisfaction of life as long as they are deprived from these standards.
Taking everything into consideration, I strongly believe that to increase life satisfaction among members of societies, governments should provide them with high standards of living, while allowing them to earn money based on their hard works and qualifications.