That’s a lesson we can all learn: the more we have, the more we want. And the only cure is to break the cycle of relativity.

In total, by giving people $30 bonus, Intel lost almost 5 percent of productivity. That's a lot. Now, think about it. You give money because you think this would increase motivation. It actually decreases motivation.

In the U.S., I think there is an ideology of not telling kids what to do. Nobody to tell you who to marry, not tell you what job to pick. You're your own person. You have the freedom to choose, including the freedom to fail in magnificent ways. And I think that's the big difference. In other countries there is basically a social norm about saving that is passed from generation to generation. In the U.S. there isn't.

Once you break the social norm and create a new social norm, all of a sudden it can stay with us for a long time.

None of us always make the best financial decisions.

Take a brilliant, creative social scientist, without any respect for conventional wisdom and you get Ellen Langer. She is a fantastic storyteller, and Counterclockwise is a fascinating story about the unexpected ways in which our minds and bodies are connected.

That’s a lesson we can all learn: the more we have, the more we want. And the only cure is to break the cycle of relativity.