Money Can Buy Happiness
I had a conversation with a friend a short time ago. The subject of our conversation turned to the age old cliché, “Money cannot buy happiness.” My friend was adamant in his attempt to convince me money cannot buy happiness. My mistake was that I somewhat agreed. My mind has been much clearer lately so after the conversation was over I sat here with a nagging feeling that something about my responses to his statements just was not right. As I sit here now examining what I know to be true of myself, I must vehemently disagree with the ignorant notion that money cannot buy happiness. In my case the opposite is true.
Money Can Buy Me Happiness.
I have known this to be true my entire life. It took a compromise of what I know to be true to get myself to agree with with the incorrect belief that money cannot buy happiness. I have heard people that are not happy say this their entire lives. I have even heard people that have no money and claim to be happy regurgitate this asinine statement. Poor people say this to somehow convince themselves that making money will not make them any happier therefore why try. Self loathing rich people suffering from self imposed rich guilt vomit this verbal diarrhea to explain to all that there is no happiness to be found in what they have. The conclusion we are all supposed to draw from these examples is people that make more money are not really improving their chances at happiness and that it is virtuous to be poor.
Why has this lie spread so far and been accepted by so many people?
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Foxfier
I grew up below the poverty line, technically. We were really happy.
Basically, it can’t buy happiness– but it can make it a lot easier to get the mats to make yourself happy. Thing is, folks tend to freak out about money, and that makes them unhappy.
May 20th, 2007 at 7:48 pmConservative Cunt
Of course money can buy happiness, why do you think that the rich are our most valuable citizens while the poor are basically useless barnacles on the ship of progress?
May 21st, 2007 at 4:45 pmBigMike
if the rich are so unhappy with their wealth, why don’t they give away everything in order to be ‘happy’…or is this just another tactic for ‘the man’ to keep us down? can you smell what the rock is cooking? smells like reverse psychology to me, brother.
May 21st, 2007 at 11:35 pmFoxfier
*laughs* Usually, the rich-miserable I see are just too worried about keeping their money, and getting more, and focus on what they don’t have yet– they don’t even get that happy when they do get stuff. *shrug* Humanity is perverse.
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:23 amWild Bill
“Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another — their only substitute, demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it. Men who have no courage, pride, or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich — will not remain rich for long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters that stay under rocks for centuries, but come crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will hasten to relieve him of the guilt — and of his life, as he deserves. –Francisco d’Anconia–
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:36 amwitch
It may not buy happiness, but it will buy liberal offsets won’t it fox?
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:49 amAnd I wanted one for a liberal friend of mine….STOMP…STOMP!
TexasFred
Money may NOT buy happiness, but it’ll make a hell of a down payment, and ya gotta admit, having money sure beats the other option…
May 24th, 2007 at 8:40 pmBarbara (Xerraire)
The bible has some wisdom on this subject:
“And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Matthew 19:24
Makes me think that even God knew that money often makes us lose our perspective, and put priorities wrongly.
Priorities can get messed up in many circumstances, but our news headlines (Britney, Lindsey, Paris, Anna Nicole and the legion of others) sure make it seems like money certainly has a huge role in helping us get things wrong.
May 27th, 2007 at 8:42 pmspackle
It is always the rich who mouth this assinine statement. My mother worked two jobs and I worked all through high school to keep our heads above water. Believe me, a couple of million would have made us very happy. But seriously, I think what money buys is freedom. If you are rich you are free to persue whatever creative endeavours you want. You are also free from worry of the mundane. Medical bills? No problem. Mortgage and home repair? No problem. It goes on and on. I cant tell you how many rich folks I work for who treat money like worthless paper. Its just a means to an end. As far as the idle bored rich. They are not happy because they have no interest in the world they live in. They would be just as sad if they were poor. I have enough interest in the world around me to last three lifetimes. But alas, like most folks I struggle to make ends meet. I am not sad about it, but I am not thrilled either. I just made peace with the fact that I most likely will never have complete “freedom”.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:00 pmFoxfier
It is always the rich who mouth this asinine statement.
Bah, don’t be ignorant. How many folks here have posted in agreement with the statement? For that matter, I agreed with it already– AND mentioned that I grew up at legal poverty level.
Stop being asinine yourself.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:10 pm