Here’s a good link, thanks to Chris.
The connection is complex, he says. But in fact, very rich people rate substantially higher in satisfaction with life than very poor people do, even within wealthy nations, he says.
“There is overwhelming evidence that money buys happiness,” said economist Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England. The main debate, he said, is how strong the effect is.
Happiness is a choice…it can’t be bought. I’ve seen many unhappy people with loads of money.
I think I would have a good time testing the theory out.
I think that money can buy “pleasure” and “comfort” and “gratification”. When you have true pleasure and true comfort, happiness tends to be a side effect of those, but only if you’re already at ease with yourself. The danger is that when you have hollow pleasure or hollow comfort, which leads to the reverse side effect. Of course hollow pleasure and comfort tends to be the domain of people who are not at ease with themselves. So it makes sense that money does buy happiness, but only in the sense that someone who is pre-disposed to being happy anyways can get buy extra tools to help them attain that goal. If you’re predisposed to being unhappy, then nothing can buy that happiness except a fundamental shift deep within your psyche. Which can’t be bought or rented. Well, I guess paying for years of therapy is kind of like buying it.
Hey Cage,
Let those unhappy people with lots of money know that sometimes if they give it to people in BC, Canada they get happier.
I think I need to get on that list as well.
My theory is that money makes me happier, but not you. So give me your money, bitches.