Money and Hapiness

I think if you are normally happy, optomistic, caring and giving, money can buy a lot of joy because you can add to the joy and happiness of others by easing their weariness from lack.

I think if you are a stingy, pessimistic jerk, you will continue to be so no matter how much money you have and will not be happier with money.

It is a matter of degree. If a person needs to be concerned about the basic necessities of life, food, clothing, shelter, money will certainly relieve some of the anxieties surrounding survival.

Beyond that, I agree with Squinney. It is a matter of your psychological makeup. A miserable person will be miserable no matter how much money he has. A happy person will revel in the things that money can do for him.

Just think about the problems surrounding some stars. Some have all the money that could possibly need, yet they are psychological train wrecks.

Too much money can damage ones mind. Many people who won in the lottery and are suddenly rich can not handle that amount of money. They keep on buying stuff until they have depts.

People who are rich are often concerned about loosing their money. They would do nearly everything for cash. Their minds are tainted.

In fact I guess money can make someone unhappy in special cases.

I'm not special.

Hmmmmm
I will say this the person who has money and isnt happy doesnt know where to shop or how.
Money is the most essential part of life.One can be happy without moeny but it is very momentary. There are somethings which make people sad.
All the money in the world could not have made me Happy the day my father died.
So, you have to look at it this way. A happy event vs a sad event.
definitely with more money you can have more happy events and fewer sad events(like say loss of a loved one, lost love,sense of outrage)

So all said an done in my opinion money can and does buy happiness to countless people everyday the world over.

Here's an interesting article à propos of the thread, courtesy of the most recent American magazine:


Can Money Buy Happiness?Democracy in America about the tendency toward "excessive individualism" in an atomistic American society. Tocqueville noted, however, that the remedy lay not in reordering the American system, but in the institutions of civil society: families, churches, charities, and friendships, which are the connective tissue between people that help us to avoid errors in our values. In other words, marketsmoralityArthur C. Brooks is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a professor at Syracuse University. This is adapted from "Gross National Happiness" (Basic Books).

I've been very poor and now I'm "comfortably rich" (as opposed to real rich) so I feel pretty certain about what money can buy.

Money buys you the luxury of not having to worry that the bills won't get paid: nobody's going to hammer an eviction notice on your door, they aren't going to turn your power or water off, you can pay for your kid's dental emergency.

That kind of comfort makes me really, really happy.

That kind of happy give you the ability to relax a little and that makes me happy too.

Owning stuff doesn't make me happy at all. Owning stuff drags me down. I own a 100 year old house, a 15 year old car, and one pair of really comfortable shoes. I can stretch one chicken into three meals.

But now it's because that's the way I live and not because I have to live that way.

money DOES bring happiness, but only to a certain degree. I am pretty sure every guy in the forum would be jumping with joy if they have a home theater system (sport and movie!!! weee!). Probably you can get any type of girls to sleep with you as well. However, those items really just present a materialistic satisfactory feeling because you can never buy a Saturday morning with you and your love cuddling in a nice warm bed. Sometimes the simplest thing can make us really happy, like having everyone around the dinner table, or just by seeing each other everyday. This is emotional happiness, which something money can't control. This is how I break down happiness. (Sorry for the bad grammar, hence my name )

Money may not buy happiness, but poverty don't buy nothing.

I have always been amused by the title of a song from Rogers & Hart's final musical "Allegro", "Money isn't everything, especially if you're rich".

helmi15- In some cases, you are right. People who have never understood the proper use of money will not be able to handle it appropriately. Many people who have been used to living from hand to mouth, will manage their riches in the exact same way as they did when they were poor, only on a different level.

Some people are really materialistic, so I don't think it's correct to say money doesn't buy happiness... it actually does, but then money can only take you so far in life. Maybe not to the level of cloud nine?