Does Money Really Buy Happiness?

[avant-garde]

Money can't buy happiness...

Do you agree with "The more we earn, the more likely we are to complain about lack of time because we equate our high earnings with a sense of entitlement to more leisure and feel resentful that time cannot be stretched."

 

[Evo]

Do you agree with "The more we earn, the more likely we are to complain about lack of time because we equate our high earnings with a sense of entitlement to more leisure and feel resentful that time cannot be stretched."

No. I work more now and make less then I ever have in my entire life. Time does not = money. When I made more, I worked less and was happier and had more free quality time.

 

[Danger]

I can't remember who it was (a classic comic such as W.C. Fields or Groucho Marx) who pointed out that while money can't buy happiness, it can rent it for a couple of hours.

 

[drizzle]

isn't that what's greed all about? just wanting everything to be on your side

 

[Cyrus]

Do you agree with "The more we earn, the more likely we are to complain about lack of time because we equate our high earnings with a sense of entitlement to more leisure and feel resentful that time cannot be stretched."

I generally disagree with all hypothetical statements I come across.

 

[drankin]

No. I work more now and make less then I ever have in my entire life. Time does not = money. When I made more, I worked less and was happier and had more free quality time.

I agree with that. The harder you work the less you make. Myself as an example, because of my experience/skill I can do a large amount of work with a lot less effort than others in my industry. I used to work my but off and wondered why I wasn't making it. Takes time and a little bit of attitude.

 

[humanino]

You are wondering about how to become happy, but happiness is not a goal : it is a feeling. One can not buy happiness anymore than one can buy love. People felt happy (and sad) even before the concept of money was invented. The problem with projecting happiness into the future, is that happiness is in the path to the goal, not the goal itself. It is now, not tomorrow.

 

[rootX]

What is happiness?

I don't see the word happiness in the OP
" Do you agree with "The more we earn, the more likely we are to complain about lack of time because we equate our high earnings with a sense of entitlement to more leisure and feel resentful that time cannot be stretched."
So I am not even sure if happiness is used in above.

 

[maverick_starstrider]

The notion that "money can't buy happiness" is a completely naive one. For some people a strong, high earning career can be really rewarding. For others the freedom of spending can be very rewarding. Other people love the IDEA of not being a materialist person (which gives them some happiness). I've always felt that happiness was the fortuitous combination of outlook+genetics+circumstance. And money can definately play positively into that. Furthermore, the wealthiest people often work fewer ours. That's one of the perks of becoming a high level executive. If you work your butt off, make good choices and are supremely lucky you may find yourself very wealthy with few work hours and the rest of the world will hate you for no particularly rational reason. Which could have an effect on your "happiness"

 

[humanino]

What is happiness?

It's when you open your eyes in the morning with the will to get out of your bed for another wonderful day.

 

[avant-garde]

Unhappiness is resisting the present moment. For the present moment is the only thing that exists.

 

[glueball8]

But money can get rid of...

 

[avant-garde]

Another question: does money get rid of loneliness?

 

[Cyrus]

Another question: does money get rid of loneliness?

Hypotheticals lead to no where avant-garde.

 

[Wax]

Money can buy you lots of things. Even sech...

 

[Evo]

Another question: does money get rid of loneliness?

It can. Money can allow you to go out and meet people, it can allow you to learn and feel more confident, it can allow you to look better which can make you feel better and become more outgoing. Money can improve your health which would enable you to get out more and meet new people. All in all, money is good.

And if you don't want your money, send it to ME!

 

[drizzle]

Another question: does money get rid of loneliness?

sure it does, but it would be [bogus], you would still feel lonely. you just can’t buy the feeling of what so ever, unless your fine with fakes

 

[lisab]

I lived very poor for several years, just hand-to-mouth. Earning a little more money brought me out of that, and that made me very happy, to not be so close to the edge.

But after I earned enough to meet my basic needs, I found more money didn't bring more happiness.

 

[maverick_starstrider]

sure it does, but it would be [bogus], you would still feel lonely. you just can’t buy the feeling of what so ever, unless your fine with fakes

This is the offshoot of "money can't buy you happiness" nonsense which is "money can't buy you friend". Sure it can. This is just that tired old stereotype of the lonely executive (the Charles Foster Kane) who has everything and nothing. Let us not forget that "networking" is just another word for meeting people and that in general successful business people are very outgoing. On top of that, even if you were wealth and had no friends there are still many options, which you would call "wholesome", available to people with money that are not as freely available to those without. You could take a couple classes, start a hobby, tour a foreign country.

In addition, there are plenty of poor lonely people so if a person is a wealthy lonely person it's just as like that that is simply their personality.

 

[glueball8]

But after I earned enough to meet my basic needs, I found more money didn't bring more happiness.

I heard almost the exact quote from "quirks and quarks" (A science radio show.)

 

[maverick_starstrider]

I heard almost the exact quote from "quirks and quarks" (A science radio show.)

Yay. CBC

 

[humanino]

This is the offshoot of "money can't buy you happiness" nonsense which is "money can't buy you friend". Sure it can.

I certainly know very sad rich people and very happy poor people. I thought it was the onus of whom claims a correlation to prove it. I do not believe in your claim that there is a correlation between happiness and money. I consider myself rich because you can not take my happiness away. I do not care that you ridicule my position.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The fact is that happiness is as much genetic as anything. So being rich or poor may have nothing to do with one's state of mind. That said, I have been poor and am comfortable now. At times as I have made much more than I am making right now [at times I have made $2K a day], but that came with a huge price: To put it bluntly, a pace like that would have killed me pretty quickly. During that period of time, my health deteriorated signficantly. I knew I had been on the road too long when I woke up in my own bedroom and couldn't figure out where I was. I kept thinking this was the strangest hotel room I had ever seen!

1). Being poor sucks. There is no doubt about.
2). Being well-to-do may or may not be a great thing. It depends in part where the money comes from. Having at least enough money to live comfortably makes life pleasant and beats the heck out of being poor. But if the price of money is your life - you have to dedicate your life to making money - which is often the case, then imo the value of wealth is limited. If on the other hand you win $100 million, your life may or may not be better, but given a choice, I'd take my chances with the $100 million.

For a lot of people, winning the lottery is the American dream. But for many lottery winners, the reality is more like a nightmare.

"Winning the lottery isn't always what it's cracked up to be," says Evelyn Adams, who won the New Jersey lottery not just once, but twice (1985, 1986), to the tune of $5.4 million. Today the money is all gone and Adams lives in a trailer...

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.co...oney/8lotteryWinnersWhoLostTheirMillions.aspx

 

[maverick_starstrider]

I certainly know very sad rich people and very happy poor people. I thought it was the onus of whom claims a correlation to prove it. I do not believe in your claim that there is a correlation between happiness and money. I consider myself rich because you can not take my happiness away. I do not care that you ridicule my position.

And I know very happy rich people and very depressed poor people. The question isn't correlation it's possibility. CAN'T is not a correlation word. One only needs to find a single counter example (which would take one like half a second) and it's disproven.

 

[drankin]

Wealthy or poor, people are people. It's just that wealthier people don't have to concern themselves with the same things poorer folks might. Either class of people can have good and bad character. Happiness and depression. They are only people after all.

 

[maverick_starstrider]

The fact is that happiness is as much genetic as anything. So being rich or poor may have nothing to do with one's state of mind. That said, I have been poor and am comfortable now. At times as I have made much more than I am making right now, but that came with a huge price.

1). Being poor sucks. There is no doubt about.
2). Being well-to-do may or may not be a great thing. It depends in part where the money comes from. Having at least enough money to live comfortably makes life pleasant and beats the heck out of being poor. But if the price of money is your life - you have to dedicate your life to making money - which is often the case, then imo the value of wealth is limited. If on the other hand you win $100 million, your life may or may not be better, but given a choice, I'd take my chances with the $100 million.


http://articles.moneycentral.msn.co...oney/8lotteryWinnersWhoLostTheirMillions.aspx

But in your wildest dreams if you could work your perfect job would you rather get paid a respectable $70,000 a year of $3 million a year. All other things being equal.

 

[mgb_phys]

Money can't buy happiness

But it does give you a better class of misery

 

[drankin]

But in your wildest dreams if you could work your perfect job would you rather get paid a respectable $70,000 a year of $3 million a year. All other things being equal.

I might take the 3 million for a sucky job. :)

 

[Cyrus]

But in your wildest dreams if you could work your perfect job would you rather get paid a respectable $70,000 a year of $3 million a year. All other things being equal.

Hypotheticals give no insights. What if I could get $3 million just because I'm that awesome?

 

[maverick_starstrider]

I might take the 3 million for a sucky job. :)

Like Siberian forced labour camp participant?

 

[humanino]

One only needs to find a single counter example (which would take one like half a second) and it's disproven.

I can give you several examples of people thinking they improve their happiness by killing other people. If there is no correlation, the statement is moot. Correlation is not even sufficient for a causation. A counter example can only be valid to disprove a law, which is a limiting case of perfect correlation. The keyword for basic science is statistics.

 

[maverick_starstrider]

I can give you several examples of people improving their happiness by killing other people. If there is no correlation, the statement is moot. The correlation is not even sufficient for a causation.

Yes and because of the existence of such people the statement "killing people can't make you happy" cannot be considered to be correct.

 

[drankin]

Like Siberian forced labour camp participant?

I think I could hang for a few months, and then afford to take a vacation for a few years!

 

[maverick_starstrider]

I think I could hang for a few months, and then afford to take a vacation for a few years!

I wonder how wealthy Solzhenitsyn was.

 

[drankin]

I wonder how wealthy Solzhenitsyn was.

I had to google that. He wasn't wealthy.