One day this summer, while we were watching our kids play together, an American mother told me her child-rearing strategy. Her children’s school cost more than $30,000 in tuition a year. Its raison d’être was to get pupils into brand-name colleges. To boost its chances, it encouraged kids to repeat grades. This woman’s daughter was performing well at school but only with intense after-hours tutoring. The girl was therefore going to repeat fifth grade. The mother’s endgame, as I understand it: the children become doctors or lawyers earning top 1 per cent incomes.

Of course, game plans like hers are now common. As the 1 per cent keeps getting richer, more parents want their kids to join it. Recent findings on happiness seem to support their thinking: most researchers now believe that happiness keeps rising with income. There is no satiation point beyond which money doesn’t matter, as was previously thought.

I like money plenty. However, I’ve decided not to try to push my kids into the 1 per cent — a group whose lives seem to be getting worse. While the rewards of membership are rising, so are the costs. Instead, I’ve devised my own child-rearing strategy for happiness.