$ and happiness... correlated?

Have a look at part 4 of a series I've been reading.

The data are tough to argue with, especially if you don't do the research or know the statistics. For my own happiness, the conclusions inferred from the data (more money is correlated with more happiness) have next to no meaning. (I'm in the lowest income bracket and the highest happiness division...)
However, the correlation is quite revealing, and could be quite helpful for me in determining my "path". Summarily, when earning less income, for whatever reasons, most people tend to be less happy. Under the assumption that there will always be a sliding scale for income in any given population, there will always be less happy countries/groups of people. In a society that depends on differential incomes to operate, it's impossible to eradicate the gap between rich and less rich completely (without breaking the system). So, having everyone make more money is probably not the solution.
Another option then, is to free the people (especially those on the "losing end") of the correlation between income and happiness. For the individual, that may actually be more difficult than trying harder and finding a higher paying job, since what I suggest would be lengthy introspection and deconstruction/recreation of one's "axis of happiness" - to base one's happiness on something other than money or what can be purchased with it. *
Of course, this is idealistic to the point of ridiculousness, but it's the type of thing I'd like to consider as one possibility for an overly-ambitious social project. A challenge is always fun....


*I'm making the assumption that happiness for the individual and the group is a key (if not THE key) goal in life. I think it's true.