Can money buy happiness?

The idea that money cannot "buy" happiness in this world (THE WAY IT IS STRUCTURED!) and all the superficial arguments behind it - is not only a bunch of bunk but an ideology that works to make people docile and willing to accept an increasingly harsh lifestyle and an increasing amount of stress and unrest.

Of course money CAN bring happinness, they EASE the way to happiness and they make life softer for even the sickest pessimist.
However, if the idea is that money are not a GUARANTEE for happiness - then that's another story. GUARANTEES exist only in Heaven.

If we stay within the paradigm of a stratified world (that is, a world where some people have a lot and are thus able to "whip" those who have nothing by withholding food from them if that becomes necessary), I believe that money are a blessing from God!

They are an alleviation of injustices and hardships that a lot of people (actually most people) in this world are subjected to.

As long as you are not a moron and as long as you understand what the REAL goodies are in life - then wealth (sudden or inherited) is a blessing. As simple as that.

The real goodies are your time and the ability to do whatever you want with it; the freedom to move whenever you want, wherever you want; and the chance to spend your life surrounded by your loved ones -
as opposed to drying up in an office, year after year, doing a bureaucratic job, in the company of impersonal individuals, in an impersonal environment, with a boss hovering over your head - and then spend whatever is left of your day in traffic.

The real goodies are being able to see your infant growing up as opposed to throwing him/her in daycare while you try to please a boss from 8 to 5.

The real goodies are being able to help and offer company to your family, friends or an elderly person in a nursing home; as opposed to becoming obssessed with your own little personal advancement. And the more obssessed you get, the clearer it becomes that no matter how much crap you add on your resume and no matter how much time you throw into your "career" (a very inflated word nowadays) - you are never quite THERE. There is always another nut even more obssessed than you are who will make you the loser in the rat race.
This may benefit the economy as a whole, but it won't benefit YOUR life.

The real goodies are not the cool car, the diamond rings, the gigantic house and the yacht. If you believe THESE are the "goodies" and you fall into sudden wealth - THEN you're screwed.

The brutal reality is that most people are forced to spend their lives AWAY from their loved ones, doing something that it is NOT the occupation they would choose if their lives didn't depend on a salary.
The majority of jobs today SUCK and the majority of people are NOT born with the business ideas/talents of a Bill Gates etc (or any other less dramatic example of a "self-made" person).

The brutal reality is that no matter how much love there is between you and your significant other, a lack of money, lack of time and the stresses that come with these two evils pose a mega-risk to your relationship. They pose a mega-risk to the peace and well-being of your children, to everything that people ultimately hold dear in life.

There is a reason why the rich look better, more rested, more relaxed, more laid-back, die later and have lower divorce rates (save the Hollywood bunch). There is a reason why they can be more generous not only with their money but also with their time; and sometimes even with their smiles.

I consider "rich" any family who does not worry about not being able to have a parent at home with their child, about how they are going to pay for a good college, what are they going to do if the working spouse is kicked out of a job, how are they going to pay for health insurance if one of the spouses must stay home with the child, etc.
People with enough "cushion" in a bank not to consider such worries - are rich.

And yes - the money they have DOES give them a ridiculously better shot at happiness compared to those who don't have them. It is as simple as that and it is easy to observe if you look at the world with objective eyes.

Just because there is a bunch of depressed rich people out there does not change the reality.

WOW, syracusa. You just convinced me; however, I will say this. That as our wealth increases, our "happiness" does not increase proportionately. If I remember correctly, a study was done concerning this very thing.

Welcome to A2K.

Debt is a misery, but life does not have to be.

Oh, I know it doesn't. Of course it doesn't.

What's actually funny is that a small fortune is more than enough to put you on the path to peace. You accrue fewer and fewer benefits as your small fortune becomes bigger. That's a really good point.
Which makes me wonder about people who never get enough (and pursue fortune making ad infinitum) or those who play "Mega-millions" instead of the "5 numbers" games. )))

Why does this bring back strange memories of Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery'? Such a great tale of you don't always get what you bargain for.

Hey, Cav. Shirley Jackson was weird. I loved her stuff, but if you ever read We Have Always lived in this Castle, you might think The Lottery was tame.

Looks as though saracusa revived this thread with the panache of one who has discovered gold.

More people made money mining miners, than miners ever made mining gold. And that's my little bit of history/economics for the day.

If you know what you want, it can help.

Yes, Letty remembers what I was going to bring up. Money buys happiness insofar as meeting basic needs... a full, warm and comfortably housed person will be happier on average than a hungry, cold, and homeless person.

But once the basic needs are met, there is no longer a correllation between money and happiness.

http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~dtg/Futile_Pursuit.htm

I think happiness comes from more than money. Good health, good spouse, good children, good family and friends should be more important than money. Also, I think money is relative; it depends upon what you had or didn't have as a child, and what your fortunes and/or misfortunes during your life time. In other words, if one had very little as a child, but accomplished relatively well economically as an adult, a modest amount of money will probably make that individual happy. It also has to do with how happy one is about their work/job/career. I also think that any individual that sets too high of a goal for themselves ended up being less happy. When a individual's expectations are not too high but accomplishes more than they ever dreamed possible would be much happier with their life.

Come on folks… Does anyone really think "Bill Gates" can't buy happiness? I've known some pretty miserable millionaires, but by and large it is the in-between-ers who derive unhappiness out of money. In Costa Rica (ironically translates to the "Rich Coast") I met people with a fraction of the money I have who were infinitely happier than I… And I'm a pretty happy person. At the same time I don't see a lot of long faces or worry lines on the faces at Café L'Europe on Palm Beach. It is the folks that have some but, in their opinion, not enough that suffer money-related misery. I believe your average person who already saves 10%+ of his salary will be more than capable of buying additional happiness with a windfall of money. Sure there are exceptions; but does anyone here think they couldn't buy some happiness with a billion dollars? Come on. Anything over 10 million, and I'll spend the rest of my life with a smile on my face.

IMHO; The answer to the title question is yes.

Sozobe,
I love your "signature"!!!

"It is easier and less costly to change the way people think about reality than to change reality". --Robert Newman

Husker? Where are you? don't you see that people are saying great things here?

My husband once said that he was too busy earning a living to make any money. Made more on New Year's Eve gigs than I ever made in a week of teaching. Ah, well.

I had a Jewish musician friend that once observed that the doctors made all the money, and the lawyers took it away from 'em.

Tell you the truth, folks. Good conversation is worth a lot more than a fat pay check.

Hey, wild Bill. Know where millionaire's mile is in Florida. That a slum now.

Gotta go fix my stone soup, now.

Later, folks

syracusa: Welcome to A2K. You've hit the nail on head. Time is money and money can buy time.

Anyone familiar with "The Science of Getting Rich"? Written in early 1900's by a guy named Wattles. I like his philosophy and think he does a good job of disposing of the hangups a lot of people have about money.

Do a search by title and you will find several referneces. Should find a free copy to read in the top ten search returns.

Cool- I just been putting my small fortune into the son and shipped him out to Prom - YIKES!

O'Bill, here's a quote from the article I linked to earlier -- GREAT article, really (I started a thread on it a while back...)



Who knows what goes on in the mind of Bill Gates? All that world-domination stuff to keep track of, gotta be stressful. ;-) I know I saw a talk show at some point when my TV was working that had people on whose lives were "ruined" by winning the lottery. The data referred to above (and which is described in further detail in the full article) indicates that those whose lives were "ruined" by winning the lottery were already unhappy, for other reasons -- and those who happily absorbed the payoff were happy before the payoff, too. Happiness set point.

syracusa, thanks for noticing! I had another one before it that got a lot of comments (Richard Feynman quote) and you're the first to comment on this one. That line is spoken by a character in a book written by Robert Newman, which I haven't read but was reviewed in NYT Book Review -- that line leapt out at me. I'm cynical, I know, but I love that line.

Yep!

Thanks everyone for the welcome. Very nice conversation people make around here. I love it.