Ever since I can remember, I've heard people tell me that money can't buy happiness. Money can only buy you material things, and what's really important in life is having loving relationships with your friends and family. But this seems idealistic. How can you be happy if you have no money?
Money provides the basics that one needs to be happy: food, shelter, clothing, health and an education. I've heard many people say, "Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have." In my situation, this sounds like a reasonable statement. But how can we expect someone who has nothing to be happy? It's unfair for us to assume that everyone has enough to live comfortably. People whose basic necessities are not met spend their lives worrying about making ends meet and struggle to provide a decent life for themselves and their families. On the other hand, research based on Gallop polls taken around the world shows that life satisfaction is highest in the richest countries. With money, we can have some peace of mind. We know that we'll always have food on our table and a roof over our head.
Once you are financially stable and have your basic needs covered, many choices open up to you. You can get a good education, which in turn puts you in a better position to have a good career, and ultimately, helps you pursue what you love. If material things make you happy, then, with money, you are in a position to get the things that you want. If what makes you happy is helping others, then having money allows you to be altruistic and assist others in need. If what makes you happy is spending time with your family, then having money allows you to work less and spend more time with the ones you love.
So in fact, money is a prerequisite to happiness. This may sound cynical, but it's actually quite true. The inconvenient truth is, no matter how many people tell you otherwise, money CAN buy you happiness.
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ReplyDeleteHannah addresses a topic that most people tend to turn a blind eye to in our society today. In her blog post "An inconvenient truth: Money can buy you happiness" she gives very good solid reasons that provide new, fresh insight on this worn out phrase. Her words opened my eyes to the other side of the saying, and I'm very appreciative for that, but I personally still believe money can't buy you true happiness.I do agree with her when she says money is a pre-requisite to happiness, though I don't think that that's applicable in every situation. I believe if you have money to provide you with the necessities of life, you're at a neutral state of being. That alone cannot give you true happiness. Though money can help bring about your happiness, it cannot be the root cause of your happiness. For example, if you receive happiness by helping others with your money, the cause of your happiness comes from the fact that they're being helped. You just happened to achieve this through money but there are other ways to help others as well. I think the biggest conviction people have about this saying is that a lot of the time, money is equated with materialism. Though materialism can bring you short term happiness, it isn't going to last.True happiness stems from things like love, friendship, loyalty, etc. So people say money can't buy you happiness because materialism won't give you happiness. Overall, I really liked what Hannah had to say and I applaud her for being very honest and bold in her blogging. It's true that people who have money have more resources at their hands that can be used to find happiness but I don't think having money always equates to happiness.
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