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Money. That's the name of the game of the 21st Century. We've all heard that old adage- "Money can't buy happiness". Before we continue, consider these-

"Money can buy you better experiences, such as a vacation or a concert or a nightclub.
Money can buy you fashionable, nice clothing, jewellery and accessories (perfumes, wristwatches et al).
Money can buy you better healthcare and protection from disease.
Money can buy you cosmetic and beauty treatments aka a perfect body.
Money can buy you a big, extravagant house, a yacht, a private jet, a luxury/sports car etc.
Money can buy you food and drink (that includes water!).
Money can buy you gadgets, music instruments etc.
Money can buy you books and a good formal education
Money can give a smile on a beggar's face."

If music, books and all of the above can make us happy, can money buy happiness? Here are some contradictory statements-

"A perfect body doesn't necessarily mean a happy, healthy body. (Moreover 'body perfection' is more of mere conformity than a universal truth)
An extravagant home need not necessarily be a happy home.
Being fashionable doesn't have to imply you're happy. (Do the smiles of celebrities give us a lopsided view of their lives and happiness?)"

Money has also resulted in materialism (read 'the rat race'), wherein we're all in the run for money over happiness (perhaps because the majority thinks that celebrities and industrialists are 'genuinely happy'). This has robbed us of our peace of mind, ruined our social lives, destroyed our interpersonal relationships, increased crime in society etc.

But the question prevails- "If not money, what can buy happiness?". According to philosophers, happiness is the "peace of mind". And this "peace of mind" can mean many things to different people- good health, good food and drink etc. And as discussed, to avail all of this, money is needed.

Is it a universal truth that money can't buy happiness? Or has it simply become an old wives' tale?

Opinions are welcome.

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.

Also, there's a difference between survival and happiness, and satisfaction and happiness. Money can buy safety, money can ensure survival, money can even be fairly satisfying. But none of that is actual happiness. Most successful business men are satisfied, but not happy.

Ultimately, the happiness is something you develop surrounding a bunch of other stuff, including "the best things in life are free" - love, appreciation, belonging, pride, someone to share your life with, someone to remember you...

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.

"You don't need ♥♥♥♥ to be happy, you need friends, love and this will be lifetime happiness"
-A bunch of clichés

Money, in their essence, is not happiness, I completely agree with that. But let me tell you one thing. For sure, having money can decrease your level of unhappiness, simply spending them can make you smile or feel better. Having a rough day? ♥♥♥♥ it, I'm going to chill with some ice cream. Feel like hanging yourself out of boredom? Ohey there is a video game I can buy to take boredom away. Have you seen my 24K Gold Fully Automatic Swiss Watch I have? It doesn't help with anything, but I feel good as hell to wear it.

Sure, friendship and love are actual sources of happiness, but they won't guarantee you'll be fully happy. Just thinking about being poor. Sure, people will always say "as long as I have my family, this is all I need and I'm happy". Sorry, but that's a lie. While his family/friends can be a source of happiness for him, he will still live in constant pain looking at the gas bills and wearing 10 layers of clothing during the winter. Those are leaving him questioning "How can I improve my life? How can I improve my family's life? What did I do wrong?..." thus making him unhappy. Got the picture? Now imagine the guy just magically got some cash on hand. He no longer worries or could care less about bills and cold winters, because he has the money to pay for them. This automatically improved his life, thus making him happier.

Doram wrote:Money can buy safety, money can ensure survival, money can even be fairly satisfying. But none of that is actual happiness. Most successful business men are satisfied, but not happy.

I think satisfaction would still count as happiness, or a source of it. When you are satisfied, you feel good, you feel relieved and at least for me, that's a source of happiness.

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.

Simply put, the way I look at these matters is that money does not buy happiness, but it can evoke emotion.

Money can make you happy on a shallower level I think. But it can't buy you the true depth of happiness- it can't buy you love, it can't buy you family, or friends. It can't buy you content, it can't buy you a healthy head. But it can definitely buy you a great big house with the materialistic things you love. For some people maybe that's all they need to be happy. But I think the majority of people need something else too, because even with all of that you might still be lonely.