The phrase “money can buy happiness” has caused a lot of controversies as the years have passed. It is not as easy to gain money as people think. This phrase is passed as something superficial and greedy because most rich people haven’t had to work for their money, and if they did, they’re seen as heartless and egotistical while they live life easily sitting in their gold-encrusted chairs, resting with their feet in the air. In a way, people with money are happier than those who have to think where their next meal is going to come from and that is expected in one way or another. Still, can money really buy happiness? There has been research over the years that help us find a correlation between how we feel and how much we earn. At first, you would think that the results are to be expected, as money does bring more happiness, but it’s not as much as people usually think.
Money allows people to live a healthier life. It gives you the chance to pamper yourself without having to worry about pocket money or where your next meal is coming from. The problem with all of this is that people don’t know how to spend their money, they only focus on the material things in life.
It was proved that those who spend on others are more fulfilled with themselves than those who don’t. The first measure of happiness is “evaluative.” According to TheSocialComment “It is a sense that your life is good—you’re satisfied with your life, you’re progressing towards your life goals.” The other component of happiness—“affective”—looks at how often you feel joy and peacefulness. It was said that while you may be happy with your life, you might not be happy with yourself. When you ask those same rich people that are thought to be fulfilled, if they’re happy in the present time, they usually struggle with the answers just as those who struggle financially. This proves that while money may give us satisfaction in our heads, it may not give it to us in our everyday lives. That shouldn’t happen. Money is supposed to buy things that will lead to happiness and if it doesn’t, then that’s not our fault. In this society based on capitalism, we’re conditioned to look for happiness in material things, we’re being taught that since the moment we’re born; You can see that when we would rather stay inside with toys or digital devices instead of enjoying outdoors or talking with our family. Capitalism looks for ways to distract us from the real world, one where the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. We’re doomed from the start.
Image designed by Zac Freeland/Vox.