Think carefully on this: Are you more or less happy today than a year ago? It might seem an absurd question. In America as in much of the world, stock and house prices have plunged over the past year and jobs have grown scarcer. Yet 35% of people surveyed in mid-April described themselves as very happy. That s the same percent as a year earlier.

The pollster, Harris Interactive, draws a tempting but wrong conclusion from the results. Money and Happiness Really May Not Be Tied Together reads the title of a report issued Friday. Don t suggest that to a jobless parent collecting the last of their unemployment checks as their health insurance lapses and their mortgage payments back up.

There s an important relationship between wealth and cheer, but it s tricky. In 1972 economist Richard Easterlin, then a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, reported an odd finding from happiness studies compiled from 19 countries since World War II. Within single countries, the rich are generally happier than the poor -- little surprise. But as a whole, rich countries aren t much happier than poor ones, at least among countries with enough income to meet basic needs. Moreover, as a country s overall wealth increases, its average level of happiness does not.

The Easterlin paradox has since defined the direction of happiness economics, a chipper-sounding but contentious branch of the dismal science. Researchers have a couple of explanations. One holds that people care more about relative wealth than absolute wealth. For suburbanites, whose success is put on naked display for the neighbors, household income of $150,000, triple the U.S. average, seems meager if the Joneses make $400,000. That would explain why poor countries are as happy as rich ones (so long as they aren t subjected to too many images of them, perhaps).

Another theory holds that people adjust their ambitions with remarkable speed following improvements in economic circumstances, as in the case of the lottery winner who develops a taste for exotic cars. This hedonic treadmill helps explain why more gross domestic product per head doesn t necessarily bring more smiles per head.

Some economists insist the Easterlin paradox is a flawed finding, and that changes in absolute wealth indeed drive happiness, but with diminishing returns. Politics threatens to creep into the research. If relative income influences happiness more than absolute income, the Dutch might be sensible for forfeiting half their pay to the state in exchange for universal healthcare, pensions, daycare, textbooks, vacation funds and more. If not, low taxes and few social programs are better.

Assuming relative wealth is at least a significant determinant of happiness, America s very happy 35% might be poorer than a year ago, but no worse off than their neighbors. After all, few investment classes and vocations have been spared a downturn. If you re not already a member of this fortunate bunch, ponder people who ve got it worse, which, perversely, might make you feel better. Average income in America was $38,615 in 2007. SmartMoney s marketers tell me readers of this column likely make well more. Average net worth for American households led by persons age 45 to 54 is about $94,000. If you ve got more, great. If not, think about what you haven t lost: That figure is down 45% since 2004.

Even if you don t stack up well on U.S. measures, consider how things look for some peer nations about now. U.S. government debt will soon pass 80% of GDP, but Italy and Greece already owe more than GDP and Japan owes almost double. America is borrowing like mad at the moment, so its net government bond sales will total 12.7% of GDP this year. Britain s will total 17.9%, reports Barron s. America s economy is shrinking, but starting with last year s downturn and running through 2013, it s expected to grow by 0.7% a year after inflation, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. The economies of Japan, Germany, Italy and the U.K. are expected to shrink over the same period.

Things are grim all around. So try your best to have a happy Memorial Day weekend, relatively speaking.