The incomplete equation of happiness

On my way to work today I had to sit next to a loud middle aged man. His work apparently involved processing lumber in some way, although this was not the main topic of his monologue. His main concern was for his lazy teenager, and for his lack of interest in homework. His son was only interested in sitting by the computer playing World of Warcraft (WoW), which affected all of his grades, and his ability to continue for applying to higher education.

Assuming that the loud middle aged man never went to university himself (perhaps a bold assumption; maybe he went to lumber processing college), I couldn't help start wondering how he could be so sure that pushing his kid through the process of higher education would make the kid so much happier. After also assuming that the goal really was to make the kid happier and not some kind of self fulfillment I concluded that the general truth is that Higher education means more money, which mean more fun and more happiness, or:

Education -> Good Job -> $ -> Hot wife, bright kids,respect and nice house -> Happiness

Problem is that this thinking is too simplistic. I have been studying for around 18 years now and can easily conclude no hot wives has so far freely been handed out. Educated people have to fight for these as well, and given our on average lack of social skills and time; arguably we have a disadvantage in our pursuit of happiness.

To make things more complicated the equation is not complete. Many more things can make you happy in life, and a good amateur philosopher thinks good and hard of that may be missing in the equation above.

This is part of why I started writing today. To show you if PhD studies in Physics could be a part of your happiness equation. And if you, like most, already figured out it would be a terrible waste of your time; at least I hope to give you an idea of what should, or at least what should not, be in your equation of happiness.