That is a Great question and an honest one at that. It's also a very hard question.
With fMRI brain imaging we can see how humans react emotionally and cognitively to certain situations/cues. Out of these studies have come more information about what makes us happy, sad, nervous, etc. Of course there is variation but through this imaging and other research there are some indications. Significant is that our human nature as we have evolved emphasizes belonging and community perhaps to a greater degree than competition or even self efficacy. Our brains thrive when we feel connected or understood. Competition is also a motivator, but an overemphasis on this leads to distress long term; you want to keep this available but in check. Alfed Adler was right--belonging is key, because our identity is formed in relationships.
So we don't sing Kumbaya and hold hands and just meditate. But we realize, to me, that the economists who very clearly said they knew about human nature were wrong. Milton Friedman way overemphasized the positive role of competition--and, more importantly, he was not a sociologist, psychologist, or anthropologist--he was an economist crunching numbers from the Chicago School. Presidents from Reagan, Clinton, Bushes, Obama, etc. operated from Friedman's paradigm and essentially is a supply side approach. 40 years of evidence says that this approach is great at creating innovation but very poor at giving most people a decent standard of living, as it creates more poverty than it solves.
From these studies on human nature and happiness, we are quite happy if we have a decent standard of living but have good connections and relationships with family and community. Also, as Freud said, if we like our work that is very important. Overall, there is some, but not much, difference in happiness/satisfaction ratings between the person making $110,000 per year vs. say $3 million per year and up. There is some evidence that the higher you go in earnings the greater increase for potential for dissatisfaction.
Poverty, and say, "barely making it", almost always results in spikes in unhappiness,dissatisfaction. Some results of this: Increased violence, drug use, depression, etc.
So, to the question, we begin with understanding what we know about what works and then have more of the conversation. The way we've been going is having a flawed economic and human nature philosophy pulling us around by the nose as we just say "keep digging". So for right now we may think about stopping digging. This "system" works very, very well for a small percentage of people and that is no accident.
