Can Money Buy Happiness?

[goopamario63]

This post by goopamario63 was thumbed up by:

Supershroom (July 2nd, 2015, 8:52 am)

[Konradix]

For me it'd be probably a place where I can feel happy. Among friends, family and such. Money can't buy you those.


And I'd think that this would be better suited for the Serious Discussion.

[Doram]

This post by Doram was thumbed up by:

Konradix (July 2nd, 2015, 8:50 am)

[Supershroom]

As usually it's a thing about the golden middle. Poor people are hardly happy, as well as people who have an unsafe income within economical trouble, worrying about their means of existence. Rich people (I mean, really rich) usually aren't happy as well simply because they're envied or lose friends due to their riches or they don't know what to do with so much money and all that.

The best situation is a safe income and a job you can identify yourself with and that gives you some fun and passion instead of pressuring you, and having an intact familiar and social environment to feel good within.

[Bogdan]

This post by Bogdan was thumbed up by: 2

Harmless (July 4th, 2015, 10:46 am) • Konradix (July 2nd, 2015, 10:43 am)

[Oranjui]

Having a steady income or a good-sized reserve of money can help reduce one's responsibilities (e.g. cost of basic necessities like food and transport, bills, taxes, debt, etc) and lead to what one might perceive to be a less stressful and more free existence (peace of mind, as brought up in the OP?), but this doesn't necessarily guarantee happiness. It simply means that there's less to worry about from a financial perspective, which means that one is left with more time to worry about other things that can't be bought with money, such as family, friends, love, fun, work, and other things that generally lead to true happiness; if one doesn't own any of these things, then having money could actually be worse than the alternative, as it increases awareness of one's lack of excitement/companionship and perhaps lead to further worry, loneliness, depression, self-deprecation.

Basically, money can decrease dissatisfaction/unhappiness, yes. But I think it's also possible that by eliminating the need for money, the awareness of one's need for (and possibly lack of) other things will be better realized and cause more stress/unhappiness than there would be without money.

So I think that it really depends on your life circumstances. If you have friends and family who love and support you, then having money will most likely be beneficial. If you don't, then having money may be helpful by reducing stress and allowing oneself to be able to live life and meet people more easily than it would be without money, but if you don't have the motivation/social drive to do so, then having money can lead to more unhappiness and emotional damage in life than one would have without money.


My best attempt at an unnecessary tl;dr: money can decrease unhappiness, but ultimately if you don't have anything else to actually sustain happiness, you might be worse off WITH money than without it.

[ChaosYoshi]

This post by ChaosYoshi was thumbed up by:

Harmless (July 10th, 2015, 9:10 pm)

[~MP3 Amplifier~]

This post by ~MP3 Amplifier~ was thumbed up by: 4

CedarBranch (July 4th, 2015, 5:27 pm) • Harmless (July 10th, 2015, 9:10 pm) • Killswitch (July 5th, 2015, 10:46 pm) • Oranjui (July 4th, 2015, 3:45 pm)