Money can buy happiness

Dear ATS,

Many times I hear people moan about money and the fact that you cannot buy happiness with money.
First of all, I'd like to point out that almost everyone has the wrong idea of money. Many people say that it is the source of all evil, that we need to get rid of the whole idea completely. This. Is. Wrong.

A society that does not rely on money, is a society that is far, far away from the current situation. Now, I imagine that a society like this could possible very well exist, in some sort of futuristic, transhumanist, robotic empire of genetically enhanced humans through genetic modification and eugenics (Or something more close to the current situation, Project Venus).

If this will happen on this earth, or on another, I cannot say. I hope it does. When I mention such a moneyless free society I am talking about a society that has a goal, which is heading forward into evolution. Self sufficient, pot smoking, hippie communities are excluded.

Anyway, this is not the current situation. This world is overpopulated and decentralized. The border between rich and poor have increased dramatically and huge global power is in the hand of the so called 'elite'. If this is an huge organized group with the same agenda, or merely a disorganized, chaotic group of rich folks, I cannot say, (but I hope the former is.).

BUT, the western world still holds the highest Human Development Index when it comes to technology, medical healthcare, science, housing, infrastructure, robotics, industry, economy, social welfare, and all other means of human development. Resulting in the capability for people to complain about first world problems. People complain and moan and moan about all other stupid things in the west, about greed! about poverty! about wanting to get out of this society, because you simply cannot handle the pressure! O, I cannot handle this anymore, I cannot handle living in a first world country, I cannot handle all of these luxuries, no, no. I want to live in the forests, I want to be a hunter, I want to live off the grid. Well guess what, live aint a dream. I can swear that if you'd go out into the wilderness without decent preparation and means of getting back to the society, 9 of out 10 of you will or beg to go back. Live isn't a romantic fairytale. Now when I say you, I mean the people that live in the west and complain about the current situation of the west, the ones that complain about their job, about being a slave to society, about being a slave to the system. Oh please, you are privileged to even live here. Here there are possibilities. Here you can work your ass up the ladder. But noooooo, lets just complain all day about being a slave to this NWO.

And then you have the people who complain about money. Money can't buy happiness they say. If you're so sure about this, why don't you try living without money for an amount of time? I'm damn sure that if you would be homeless than money does buy happiness. Being able to BUY food and to pay for shelter gives me happiness. Knowing that I won't have to freaking beg and live on the streets during the winter and during the year makes me happy! So should you! Knowing that I can save up money and invest it in things in things that help this world makes me happy, yes indeed! With money you can make this world better, with money you have power. You need power to change this world for the good. Without power you cannot change this world for the better. With money you can help people, you can buy stuff that you love. That give you happiness. Stuff that you'd never be able to imagine you could get without money. Oh, that is mere materialistic happiness they say, but dear person, you are made of matter. Clothing is made of matter. Your PC is made of matter, you house and everyone you love is made of matter. Happiness is matter. So is the ability to buy it. Yeah, you don't happen to live in utopia, you're not a part of the few % elite that can do whatever they want humanly possible. But you can try to imitate them as best as possible and work your up way up. It is possible here, you just have to get off your lazy bum.

Even if money can't actually buy happiness, it sure as hell can rent it.

Peace

Of course it can.

I like ice cream. It makes me happy to eat it. You need money to buy ice cream. Therefore money can buy you happiness.

Money can sometimes buy happiness
but sometimes no amount of money can

Depending on the circumstances

Money does not buy you happiness but it does give you a stress free life with all the chaos that this world has to offer.

I've been rich and I've been poor.....

Rich is better?

However I was very happy when I was homeless living in my car.

It can buy happiness.

Ben Affleck said so in the great occult movie "Boiler Room" and I quote:

Okay, here's the deal, I'm not here to waste your time. Okay, I certainly hope you're not here to waste mine, so I'm gonna keep this short.

Become an employee of this firm, you will make your first million within 3 years.

Okay, I'm gonna repeat that, you will make a million dollars, within three years of your first day of employment at J.T. Marlin.

There's no question as to whether you become a millionaire working here. The only question is, how many times over. You think I'm joking....I am not joking. I am a millionaire. It's a weird thing to hear, right? Lemme tell ya, its a weird thing to say: I am a #ing millionaire. And guess how old I am...27, you know what that makes me here? A #ing senior citizen. This firm is entirely comprised of people your age, not mine. Lucky for me, I happen to be very #ing good at my job or I'd be out of one. You guys are the new blood. You are the future swinging dicks of this firm.

Now you all look money hungry and that's good. Anybody who tells you that money is the root of all evil, doesn't #ing have any. They say money can't buy happiness. Look at the #ing smile on my face! Ear to ear baby! You want details, fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? (he slides his keys across the long boardroom table) I have a ridiculous house at the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, I am liquid.

So now you know what's possible, let me tell you what's required. You are required to work your #ing ass off at this firm. We want winners here, not pikers. A piker walks at the bell. A Piker asks how much vacation time you get in the first year. Vacation time? People come to work at this firm for one reason, to become filthy rich, that's it. We're not here to make friends, we're not saving the #ing manatees here guys. You want vacation time, go teach third grade at a public school.

Okay, first three months at the firm are as a trainee, you'll make 150 dollars a week. After you've done training, you take the series seven, you pass that, you become a junior broker and you're opening accounts for your team leader. You open forty accounts you start working for yourself, the sky's the limit. A word or two about being a trainee, your friends, parents, other brokers, they're gonna give you # about it, it's true, a 150 a week, that's not a lot of money. Pay them no mind. You need to learn this business and this is the time to to do it.

Once you pass the test, none of that's gonna matter. Your friends are #. You tell em you made 25 grand last month they're not gonna #ing believe you. # them! # 'em! Parents don't like the life you lead. # your mom and dad. See how it feels when you're making their #ing Lexus payments. Now go home and think about it. Think about whether or not this is really for you. If you decide that it isn't, listen, it's nothing to be embarrassed about. This is not for everyone. But if you really want this, you call me on Monday and we'll talk. Just don't waste my #ing time......Okay, that's it.

Sorry for the long post, but ... yeah, I just thought it was funny how he laid it out in the film.

Can money buy happiness? Yeah sure it can! 100% possible.

However money is not the cause of happiness, i'd argue.

IIRC, there was a rather interesting (or not) study about happiness and money, where the participants were an array of people who had just won in lottery a great sum of money, and another array who has just been in accidents and got handicapped, thus lost their ability to walk.

So, the doctors recorded their levels of happiness in the beginning and then proceeded with recording those levels after many years. I cannot remember exactly but i'd say the study lasted for 20 or 30 years.

So, what was the outcome of the study? Those handicapped, first extremely depressed, achieved true happiness after all. And the lottery-folk? First extremely happy but overall they got very depressed over time, usually after losing much gained.

You won't do jack-sh17 with money if you don't have a life that has LOVE..., community/family, respect, and that kind of things. I think i believe that love is the originator of happiness.

I read it in finnish but i'm sure the same, original study can be found easypeasy, i'm too lazy to look it up for you, sorry! ~

LOVE, guys, LOVE!

(i luv u guys (:

a reply to: Velom

This world is overpopulated and decentralized.

Wrong & elitest.
Specific, overcrowded areas do not equal an overpopulated Planet.

Being able to BUY food and to pay for shelter gives me happiness.

Wrong & elitest.
Why should these two basic human rights be purchased?



The last 3 posts of yours could all have been written by Ted Turner...



The funny thing about that is you'd never be accepted by them in their perfect World...
Yet you wish to emulate those types of people...




Dare I say, you have been brainwashed in a completely different fashion to the average Fox viewer.

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

Turner committed to charities for better environment, peace and disarmament and the fight against overpopulation, disease and poverty in the Third World. He has a total of $ 1.5 billion of his fortune donated to charity. With a gift of a billion dollars the United Nations Foundation was set up in 1998. This foundation is funding a number of charities in cooperation with the United Nations and also trying to improve relations between the UN and the US government. In 2001, Turner and former Senator Sam Nunn 's Nuclear Threat Initiative, made an international organization with the aim to prevent the proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. Turner is also committed to several environmental projects, such as the design of nature reserves in the US and the reintroduction of the bison in Montana. He established the philanthropic Turner Foundation in 1990 to subsidize environmental projects and other projects. In 1990 he took the initiative to improve a cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers , with the goal of environmental awareness and multiculturalism of children. Turner Endangered Species Fund, created in 1997, aims to protect biodiversity and prevent endangered species from extinction.

Seems like a great guy to me!

Money pays for my Zoloft and Elavil
and also keeps the wife off my back.

So, yeah.

a reply to: Velom

I was speaking more about his depopulation ideology.
It wasn't an insult.

I like his charitable work....a lot.
I like that he threw shots at Rupery Murdoch...a lot.
I like his stance on Nuclear Weapons hypocrisy...a lot.
I like how he feels about Media control...Even if he took advantage of the situation, he may have done that for benevolent reasons...

I like the Rocketfellas & Bill Gates for their philanthropy too...


But all that good work by Turner can become undone with wanting to depopulate the Planet, which is not even close to being overpopulated when you take into consideration the amount of empty space on every Continent.

Depends on what you mean by happiness...

If a new TV or Phone or Chocolate makes you happy, that's fair enough...


If you're a Mega Star like Robin Williams or Heath Ledger with untold wealth & still commit suicide...
I'd say that's a fair argument against Money making people happy.

a reply to: Velom

Your post is a study in idiocy. You are conflating necessity and happiness. Looks the words up in a dictionary, then read your post, and delete it. You clearly don't understand even the most basic concepts. Take your Ayn Rand'ian neo-fascistic value absent personal conservative philosophical musings somewhere else.

originally posted by: th3dudeabides
a reply to: Velom

Your post is a study in idiocy. You are conflating necessity and happiness. Looks the words up in a dictionary, then read your post, and delete it. You clearly don't understand even the most basic concepts. Take your Ayn Rand'ian neo-fascistic value absent personal conservative philosophical musings somewhere else.

Necessity
a. The condition or quality of being necessary.
b. Something necessary: The necessities of life include food, clothing, and shelter.

Happiness
Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.

''You are conflating necessity and happiness.''
Yeah, since when are food, clothing and shelter completely free anyway? (O wait, where I live it is, well, only for a certain amount of time, with our great social welfare system.) Having enough food, shelter and clothing makes me happy. I don't see how this is idiocy.

Like I said in the opening post, a true money-free society is not possible yet and can only take off in a world in which the population is controlled. I'm all for that.

And I never said that only life necessities bring happiness. It is the basic need for happiness. From there you can work to get even more happiness, money gives you the power to do this, how capitalistic, materialistic, and mainstream that might sound, it is the truth. But the way people are and use money plays a huge roll in this. Many cannot handle such power well, including those who kill themselves because of it (You cannot use rich people as an excuse in this, as other factors play a huge role as well). Money is not needed for happiness, but it definitely can and will for almost all.

And by the way, thank you for your useless post, you wise human! It served great purpose indeed, your words without backup have definitely changed my whole mind, and in the meantime, has stimulated your ego ! Have another little star, at least you tried, right?

Money could make me happy a couple of times a day like Charlie sheen would say "winning"

When somebody tells me that money can't buy happiness, I simply reply with - "Then you must not be shopping in the right place"

"Money can't buy happiness" is just something rich people say to shut up poor people, and something poor people say to make themselves feel better. I never cared for the phrase honestly, money can sure as hell change a life pretty instantaneously depending on the amount.

Money does not directly purchase happiness.

Being "happy" is a mental state that you choose to exist in by aiming your emotions and thoughts to the positive.

We get angry over all kinds of things, and mostly it's because we hold irrational beliefs which influence how we feel. The same can be said for happiness.

Basically, we ultimately choose how we feel from moment to moment based on our thoughts and beliefs. This is why you can't make someone else happy that doesn't want to be.

Your threads have made me ill reading them.

Good luck putting your happiness in things.

I have enough for a roof and basics. I have loved ones that I am with that make me happy.

Lets see, spend all my time working for things that end up owning me? Or spend my time with people I love?

All those people in Hollywood are SO happy.

I really feel sorry for you.