How much do you think happiness has to do with money? Does it vary from culture to culture? Does it depend on your personality? Like the writer of this article, are you skeptical of the study’s results because of the source of its funding? Does it convince you that being rich is not all it’s cracked up to be?
In my opinion, no matter whether or not we are rich, the key thing is to keep a healthy balance in our lives. That means to balance our work and personal life, in both of which money is just as important. However, it’s often difficult to keep this balance when becoming rich, the person either slips into being a workaholic or being a “the most luckiest person in the world”. And there is the problem, if we allow money to fool our mind, it will eventually lead to being unhappy, because we start to overlook other things important in our lives and concentrate only on the fact that we are rich. Of course, I admit that it is hard to not to stick to the sudden richness. I believe that the superrich people have then problems to have normal relationships with other people, including love and friendship. Because the vast amount of money gives them a possibility to enjoy what life offers, they start to have problems with their personal life. Either they keep working hard because of misbelief that more money will bring them happiness, or they slip to drinking alcohol or taking drugs. Many rich people have not managed to cope with their fortune, such as Kate Moss or Paris Hilton.
ReplyDeleteThe article points out that people are happy only to a certain point of getting rich. That suggests that perhaps it is better to have only such amount of money that we need for our basic needs and for a little enjoyment. But it is again hard to give some needs a miss and even economists assume, that human needs are infinite, which is indeed true. But fulfilling our material needs doesn't guarantee that we will be happy.
“Money, get away, get a good job with more pay and your O.K. “One may argue if it is as easy as Pink Floyd illustrates it in one of their songs, however it is hard to prove that the majority of the world’s population isn’t heading towards this ideal. If you don’t live in a warm area with an endless income of food supplies you might need to agree that without money you’d be unable to live a happy life. The thing is that society is set up really in such a way that you cannot be happy without money. The reason why is simple: Since you cannot be happy, when you are starving to death and since without money you are unable to change this state; money is indirectly one of the irreplaceable tissues that make up happiness. Nevertheless, that doesn’t necessarily mean once you have money, you must be happy. This can be shown on a nice example: A man who’s rich doesn’t have to be happy, but a hungry and sick poor person won’t be happy at all until his problems are solved. And as already mentioned- society holds the key to his problems in the form of money.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, as we have seen in the article, there are more occasions when the money you have, actually makes it harder for you to breathe. Take perhaps the example with friends. I can truly imagine a situation where a rich man has poorer friends, who either envy his wealth or behave normally, but the rich man feels badly anyway, since he and his problems differ so much from the others and their problems. The same counts for the example with your children. You must be so careful when you don’t want them to become spoiled. Furthermore, it’s also your responsibility to make them realize that wealth is not customary and raise them in such a way that they won’t get the feeling from their classmates that they are somehow less or more important.
All in all, since our culture is adjusted the way it is and since we don’t want to just live, but we also want to thrive, I think money has a lot to do with happiness, whilst keeping in mind that, it varies from culture to culture and area to area.
Branislav Skocek IB3
I think that if we ought to be comparing both extremes, being rich and living in poverty, then it is obvious that being rich makes you way happier than being poor. However, I think that the article was aimed at people of the middle class and the message was that rich people aren’t that much happier than you are. Of course, they have some kind of financial stability and have more freedom when it comes to important questions such as what house to purchase or what college should their kids attend. However, not all that glitters is gold and even rich people have their problems regarding happiness.
ReplyDeleteHaving more money certainly has its positives however, being wealthy does not mean being happy. I remember an article I read about 6 months ago about a man who was born into a wealthy family and never had problems connected to money. However, when he was 16 his dad’s rivals hired a group of people that attacked him and left him partially paralyzed and blind on one eye. His father had ignored him his whole life and was never really appreciated by anyone. When his father died and he inherited most of his fortune his whole family turned their backs on him. Later, he became depressed and addicted to cocaine and alcohol and last year he died all alone. I was unable to find the article or to remember his name, but I remember his story very well and I consider his life to be an unfortunate example of being wealthy and having a life that totally sucks.
At the end, I would like to say that I would rather be living a happy life with steady income than have millions of dollars and be all miserable and alone. I think that having people that are close to you and people that you trust are far more important than having a bank account with millions of dollars. Although, I must say that sometimes I envy those who are rich especially those, who were lucky enough to be born to right families.
Mai, I agree with you that this article is rather aimed at middle-class people who work 24/7 to gain their dreamland fortune and want to become millionaires. In addition, I also think that this article and the mentioned studies in the article are really talking about the ultra rich people such as Steve Jobs or Warren Buffet. My opinion is that is quite simple and obvious that being wealthy to some extend is beneficial but when this border is crossed then benefits are replaced with negatives. So, being very poor make you miserable and also being ultra rich makes you miserable. The graph of a money possession and happiness is in my opinion from a general scope a gauss curve. As a result, I think that being semi-rich or middle class is the best way to be happy, since you do not suffer from serious money problems and some other problem connected with the big wealth are also non-existing. One example of such a problem can be found in your little story which you have posted into this discussion. In your story the possession of big wealth led to physical attack from side of a business opponent. Hence, we can conclude that being ultra-rich brings certain disadvantages which may be connected with hate or envy of others. Thank you for your story it really fitted my argument.
ReplyDeleteMojo
@Zuzana
ReplyDeleteZuzka, generally I am well disposed to your comment. I absolutely agree with what you said about the condition when our negligence to disallow money to fool our mind eventually leads us to being unhappy, because we start to overlook other things important in our lives, concentrating only on the fact that we are rich. Moreover I also agree on what you said about keeping a healthy balance in life and on what you said about human needs being infinite. However one of the conclusions you have drawn about the possible problems rich might have, seems a bit hot-headed to me. You said that rich people might slip to drinking alcohol or taking drugs and that many rich people have not managed to cope with their fortune, for example Kate Moss or Paris Hilton. Nevertheless, in my opinion that is an inaccurate observation, because I believe those people like Kate Moss or Paris Hilton haven’t failed to cope with their fortune of being rich, but have failed to cope with their fortune of being famous. Their lack of intimacy (with a paparazzi hiding behind every corner, in the pursuit of finding at least the minimum evidence that would be sufficiently enough supporting a scandalous headline in the tabloid), surely acts as the beginning of a path leading towards drinking of alcohol and taking of drugs.
Branislav Skocek IB3
RE: Branislav Skocek
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that our society is set up in a way where money leads to happiness. However, there are cultures, where people do not care about money at all. An example of people who do not care about getting more money, but rather care about their personal growth are Buddhist monks. Their way of life is highly influenced (or set) by their religion, which says that one only needs as much money as one needs for surviving. Of course majority of people in the world are after money, but as you mentioned, money doesn’t always ensure happiness.
In your comment you stated that poor people won’t be happy until their problems aren’t solved. This is true only to an extent. Many people dedicate their life to earn more money, not understanding that money is only a tool to reach happiness. With money, they can afford accommodation, food and something extra to pleasure themselves.
I totally agree with your examples of rich people having personal difficulties due to the money they earn. Truly, among with money come responsibilities. However, it is always easier to handle these “too much money problems”, than to struggle with lack of money.