I would argue that money can, indirectly, bring you happiness. Money buys you all the things that you were only able to dream of when you couldn’t afford them. These material things make you feel good, and isn’t this what happiness is all about?
The traditional argument I hear is that money can’t buy happiness, but given the choice between a pile of money and feeling happy every day for the rest of my life, I know I’d choose the money.
Yes, Yes, a resounding yes!
Of course money brings happiness, those that say it doesn’t don’t have any. It’s one of those hippie arguments that attempts to rage against materialism but ends up as nonsensical rubbish. If you don’t have to worry about keeping a roof over your head or the cost of everything you can concentrate on other things in life. Money is just a necessity in this society whether we like it or not. The more you have of it the more things you can do and options you can explore.
“Money can’t buy you love, but it sure increases your bargaining position!”
Some quote from some movie seen some time ago.
Sure, money can bring you happiness. It would certainly be a key ingredient in my happiness. But it doesn’t guarantee you happiness (witness Mariah Carey), and neither does NOT having money (by not having money I mean not having millions, but still not dirt poor or anything) guarantee being not happy.
I think it has a lot to do with your general outlook on life. If you’re an unhappy person, lonely, depressed, or misanthropic, money won’t bring you happiness, just more stuff. Whereas, I’ve seen people that are dirt poor who are genuinely happy people, and wealthy people that are bitter and angry with the world. It’s led me to believe that happiness is something inside you, and not your surroundings.
Money definitely will bring happiness (to me).
But “happiness is a warm gun”, as the Beatles sang. Once you got the happiness, then you start going down hill. You do hookers, drugs, gang bangs, guns, divorce, murder… whatever money can buy. Bang! You are heading to the unhappiness or possibly ruin.
Looks like people in Hollywoods can’t be very happy just because of that – they have too much money!
I think having money gives you greater and more opportunities to FIND happiness. After all, it’s a lot harder to do so if you’re working 50 hour work weeks just to survive. Does independence make you happy? Being with family and friends? Travel? Philanthropy? Just sleeping in every day? (As an aside, I definitely don’t think that material possessions work into it as much as the OP seems to believe.) Sure, it’s possible to get and indulge these things making 10K a year, but it’s a lot easier with lotsa moolah…
I can safely say that, given enough money, I would have nothing left to worry about.
I guess that means I’m generally pretty content about everything except my finances.
Come to think of it, that’s pretty cool.
I agree with this point. You can think of there being a scale from 0=Homeless bum to 10=Fantastically wealthy. If your down at number 0 or 1 then you ain’t gonna be having a good time, no matter what. If you’re up at 8 or 9 then chances are you’re going to be pretty contented, and if you’re not then you’ve no excuses not to be!
Sure, there’s always going to be people in this world who are rich and miserable. Same as there are people who are poor and contented. I think this is the exception, not the rule. For the 90% of us somewhere in the middle, money would make a hell of a difference to our happiness.
Not exactly on-point, but analogous: I saw an interview with David Cassidy (no, I was not a fan), who said, “Sure, it’s lonely at the top. But it’s even lonelier at the bottom!” Good line.
“I know I’d choose the money.”
You’d choose it because it makes you happy, right?
Wow, I am rather surprised so many people in this thread seem to feel that money would buy them happiness. I don’t feel that is true for me at all. If I list the demons that I fight in order to try to stay happy, not enough money is very low on the list. I’m not sure it is on the list at all.
One thing I’ll admit though: I think that a minimum amount of money is important for happiness. However, I think that there are rapidly diminishing returns to having more money. That is why I think it is so sad to see people who are very poor and yearn to become rich by doing something like becoming a professional sports star, or a famous actor, or a drug dealer. It seems that these people, knowing poverty firsthand, have come to the conclusion that what is really important is money. Where I think they err is in assuming it is important to aim for the small chance of having tons of money rather than a surer chance of having enough money to be comfortable. Of course, the fact that our society is so materialistic and we are constantly being told that material goods will buy us happiness does not help matters!
Money can’t buy you happiness. It can, however, rent it for a few hours. (-:
Seriously, there is some truth to it. I’ve been in situations of relative comfort and abject poverty, and I’m not sure my happiness was improved with money.
So I’d restate it this way: Money can’t buy happiness, but lack of money can make you miserable if you let it.
Happiness isn’t good in excess. I’m unhappy doing poorly at school. I do better.
Checkmate. 
Ok one of these things doesn’t belong here. A famous actor or sports star is someone who excels in a particular talent and has risen to the top of their chosen profession. In many ways they are similar to any other professional who achieves great success through exceptional talent and hard work.
A drug dealer is just some criminal who knows where to get large quantities of narcotics.
Your point is taken though. While sitting around watching MTV, it does seems like the only role models for urban youth is the gold chain wearin celebrity/athlete/drug kingpin rollin to da club in his 4-4, popin a cap in some niggas ass, surounded by his hizzos.
These do tend to be all or nothing professions, unlike your typical architect, engineer, or computer programmer.
No…I’ve always been told that money buys things like food, clothes and housing.
Having money is great. It gives you the freedom to live where you want. Play where you want. Eat where you want. Money gives you the freedom to get distasteful people the fuck out of your face.
The flip side is that when you have a lot of money, all of a sudden people want crap from you. People ask you for loans. People want you to drive them around in your car. All of a sudden you are the neighborhood bank.
Probably the biggest thing that makes people with money unhappy is the following:
On an unrelated note…I can’t wait until the last episode of that Joe Millionare show.
One of my father’s favorite sayings goes a bit like this:
“Life is a shit sandwich. But if you have more bread, you can spread it out a bit.”
Of course $=happiness! IA with FeistyMongol. Those who claim it doesn’t don’t have any.
I honestly don’t believe that money buys happiness. Having money is nice, no doubt about it. But it’s just one factor in your life. There’s also health, relationships, doing work you enjoy, and just plain having a good positive outlook.
I’m not rich, but I’m not poor either. I’ve got a reasonably nice house, we have two cars, money in the bank, and enough income that we can afford to eat out when we want and take yearly vacations. Am I happier? Yes. But not because of the money. I’m happier because I have a daughter I love, a good job that I enjoy, and a peaceful home life. I look back quite fondly on my earlier years, when I was just as happy but poor as dirt.
There are a lot of wealthy people out there committing suicide. John Belushi was rich, had a wife that adored him, friends who would do anything for him, and a public that adored him. And he died miserable. So did Curt Cobain.
The danger of thinking that you’ll be happy as soon as you have some money is that one day you’ll have the money, and discover that you’re still the same person. Then you’ll have a big let-down. Especially if the tradeoffs you made to get that money wind up making your life worse.
If you asked me what was the most important thing to ensure happiness, I wouldn’t say money. Top of the list would be to be married to someone you love, and who loves you. Next, in my case, would be to have children in good health who are becoming the kind of people you hoped they’d be. Next would be doing something fulfilling with your life. Having a career you enjoy. Making a difference. After that, being a person you are proud of being. A lot of people are miserable because deep down they don’t like themselves. They do foolish things. They do things that are counter to what they think is moral. Don’t do that. Be true to yourself.
After all that comes health. Christopher Reeve is rich, but I’ll bet he’d rather be poor and walking.
After health, I’d say money squeaks onto the list. I wouldn’t give up my health, my family, or my morals for money, so it’s clearly below all of those things on the ‘what makes me happy’ list.
People are too conditioned to thinking that having stuff really matters. That’s why we live in a society buried up to its neck in debt. Let it go. Strive to be comfortable, and to have enough money to buy your freedom and a few doo-dads you enjoy. The rest is gravy. Don’t worry about it.
There are several problems in my life that make me a very unhappy person. I cannot say my life is a positive one, because of these problems.
It happens to be that these problems can indeed be solved my money.
But, it is my belief that once these problems are solved, other ones will come about to make me perhaps as unhappy as I am now, perhaps even more unhappy.
So, the answer is “maybe”. If I am wrong about the new problems coming up, then perhaps money will make me happy. But I doubt it.