I got a text yesterday from a friend enjoying a getaway to the Florida Keys. It spelled out, “I’m paying the buttercup tax.” I immediately went to the internet, wondering what he meant and not wanting to appear ignorant. On-line, there was no real reference to the phrase other than the dainty yellow flower that is apparently poisonous, so I wrote him back for an explanation. “It’s the price of happiness,” he replied. “We love the Keys!” My wife and I had just visited Key West for the first time together. She had gone during her college years, but I had never been. Our cost of going there was minimal because we took the high speed ferry and stayed relatively free at the Marriott. I’m always happy at a Marriott, especially if it’s on a beach. I never once thought about taxes. 

According to an N Business article by Deepthi Nair, “the global average of the price of happiness is $85,000 a year, according to Expensivity, which calculated the cost of happiness for 160 countries by combining data from Purdue University’s Happiness, income satiation and turning points around the world report, purchasing power ratios from the World Bank and cost-of-living figures in cities.”

“At $143,933 a year, the most expensive country to be happy is Bermuda, while the cheapest is Suriname in South America, where it costs just $6,799, the Expensivity study found.”

“In 2018, the Purdue University study, which is based on data from the Gallup World Poll of 1.7 million people, found that there is an ideal level of money that could make a person happy – and it varies around the world.”

As for buttercups, my only encounter is through the song, “Build Me Up Buttercup” by the Foundations:

Why do you build me up (Build me up)
Buttercup, baby
Just to let me down? (Let me down)
And mess me around
And then, worst of all (Worst of all)
You never call, baby
When you say you will (Say you will)
But I love you still
I need you (I need you)
More than anyone, darling
You know that I have from the start
So build me up (Build me up)
Buttercup, don’t break my heart

[Verse 1]
“I’ll be over at ten”, you told me time and again
But you’re late, I wait around and then (Ba-dah-dah)
I went to the door, I can’t take any more
It’s not you, you let me down again (Hey, hey, hey)

[Pre-Chorus]
Baby, baby, try to find (Hey, hey, hey)
A little time and I’ll make you happy (Hey, hey, hey)
I’ll be home, I’ll be beside the phone waiting for you
Ooh ooh ooh, ooh ooh ooh.

So, I still ponder the mystery of a “buttercup tax,” after all this research. “Although there are variations, quite often the flower is said to represent joy, youth, purity, happiness and friendship.” In the song, the reference is to a girl – his “baby.”

“Despite safety concerns, buttercup is used for arthritis, nerve pain, blisters, ongoing (chronic) skin problems, and bronchitis.”

We moved to Florida because there is no state tax, but certainly taxes on everything else. Why not a buttercup tax?