If money cannot buy happiness, can you ever be truly happy without money?
Many people say money cannot buy happiness. They even extend it to love and argue that money cannot buy love. What i am yet to understand is what they mean by that statement. Are they trying to imply that in pursuit of happiness, money plays no role?
Happiness is a state of well-being that encompasses living a good life—that is, with a sense of meaning and deep satisfaction. Source
To live a good life, so many things must play important roles. Money, job, family, wife , hubby, academic satisfactions and many things will play important roles for you to attain the height of being happy.
Money is very important when the issue of happiness is raised. Money logically buys you freedom from worry about the basics in life. With money, you worry less about housing, food, clothing. Your achievements, marital status, social relationships, etc., all influence how happy you are.
If money determines the larger part of why you are happy, is it not reasonable to say it 'buys' you the happiness? Perhaps, the problem here is the fact that we are thinking about the word 'buy' to mean exchange of goods and services.
Have you seen someone who has money and he is sad? Perhaps yes but is having money the reason the person is sad? My question is can you be unhappy because you have money?
I guess your answer is no. People can be unhappy for so many reasons but having money is not one of those reasons.
If you are one of those who believe in the general saying above, then we can ask you, can you be 'truly' happy without money? I can remember how fast i think and how sad i am when i notice my account is nearing red. It is not a good experience. Everything inside you will be weak. It is even hard to think straight.
How happy can you be when you don't have money to marry a woman, how happy can you be when you cannot pay your school fees, house rent or pay artisans to come and repair some things in your home? How happy can you be when you don't have money to feed your mouth not to talk of that of your family? How happy can you be when you cannot pay little bills - electricity, water?
I think we need to rethink all these so called 'wise sayings' which we use most times to console ourselves. I doubt if a rich man will use this line to talk to anybody because he knows how 'fulfilled' and 'happy' he is when he can easily pay for anything he wants.
If you still think money cannot buy happiness, then tell us if you can be happy being poor and unable to buy basic things.
Thanks for your time. Your boy @smyle the philosopher.
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This is in its totallity a complex issue, but, the essence is in my view that Money itself cannot nor have it ever actually bought anyone happyness. Infact it functions quite oposite as due to the fact that society is made dependant on money, it directly creates oposition and lack.
So yes you can very much be alot more happy if money is not an issue / does not exist. Its actually found, when some research is done that , poor communitys that still functions is on avarage more happy then monetery rich communitys.
The only reason, to me, why money to some degree facilitates happyness in our socalled moddern society, is because its imposible for most that live within that society to get neccesitys for quality life without money. But any amount of money beond a sertain medium, results by large in less happyness.
So if a society managed to function without any concept of money, I whould argue that society whould be ALOT more happy then the avarage individual in our modern system.
Sure
Have you been to the village,see how those poor kids are.
Truth is that on a general term,the rich is less happy
Deceit! A pure one at that! lols!
I am one that believes money can or at least helps attain happiness. Many of the reasons you listed are valid for how it can help, ie. lessens stress. I do have some scattered thoughts that I would like to throw in though. If you think I wrote too much, feel free to only read (IV) as I believe it is the most thought-provoking.
(I)
First of all, I don't think the phrase should be taken at face value, but more so as a moral statement. Suppose it is a preemptive statement. In other words, "money does not wash dirty hands". If someone offered you to do a deed against your own morals, ie. kill someone, for a large amount of money, would you do it? When put that way, the original statement has a new twist. No matter how much money you get, you killed someone. You won't really be happy spending that money. Of course, some do not think this way, that is why we have hitmen and dishonest leaders in this world.
(II)
For those that don't think money contributes towards happiness, I'd like to ask what makes them happy. I would pose that money helps buy time, and from time, most, although not all, things grow.
(III)
I believe money is also obviously a double-edged sword. Many get addicted to money. They can't do without it and dream about it. Everything reduces to money and it drives them crazy. All they want is more money and cross too many lines for more of it although they will never be able to spend that much in their lives.
I would say that money does not guarantee happiness, as some people seem to think in rebuttal to the claim.
(IV)
I do think this last case is the most important one, and also a very applicable one. When we attack the saying "Money does not buy happiness", our minds dart towards quick defenses, like "if I had a larger house" or "if I had a better car". However, we hyperbolize the amount of money in question. What you can do with a hundred dollars and a hundred million dollars is very different.
This leads to your life. Is an extra 3 hours at work going to be more beneficial, or will spending time with your family for 3 hours make you happier? Which will make your family happier? You may think, I need x amount of dollars to buy y for someone. But would that someone rather spend time with you over that y.
So when we bring the monetary amount closer to us instead of exploding it, there's a lot more to think about. There is a catch to the money, it isn't falling from the sky into your lap. You are sacrificing time for that money. So think about your friends, family, pets, or even yourself before you pick up another shift. Yes, money is important, but it might not be as important to them as it is to you.
los! Thank you for your response!
I did not bring 'morality' to this discourse but your first argument introduced that. Like you have rightly noted, it is a matter of perspective. Not everybody will see it as a bad thing and to look at it from the utilitarian angle, you will agree with me that if greater people benefit from such act, it is a good one.
The 'IV' is hypothetical and i do not really get the logic behind it but i think you are trying to draw the importance between spending money to make yourself or someone happy and making them happy by just being there and creating time for them.
Since your first sentence is an approval of my conclusion in a way, i think you answered me with a 'yes' (not totally affirmative though)!!!
You can throw more light on the 'IV'.
Thanks for your time once again.
In (IV), I was simply noting that we live in a society where money is earned, for the most part at least. That is why we have work and jobs. In order to attain money, we must commit a portion of our time, and for many people, a majority of our lives.
For many hours a day, we slave our lives away to make money. However, time spent working is time lost somewhere else, like forming stronger relationships or enjoying a hobby. This is where the saying is relevant, especially for workaholics. It doesn't matter how much money you have if you don't have time to spend it or anyone to spend it on.
A good constructive argument 👏👏