More recent thinkers claim to have PROVED OTHERWISE. It’s an age-old debate.

IN THE TWO centuries before the 1970s the views of the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham were in the ascendant. Bentham’s general idea was that the rational pursuit of economic interest correlates with the pursuit of happiness. During his reign, versions of this utilitarian idea were put forward, all true to the idea that happiness and being levelheaded were twinned. On this assumption, money is a happiness enabler.