How Does Money Buy Happiness Essay - 764 Words (2024)

1373 Words |3 Pages

Happiness is a feeling adults experience when they receive a gift, win something, and various other reasons, but does money buy this happiness everyone experiences? Don Peck and Ross Douthat claim money does buy happiness, but only to a point in their article which originally appeared in the Atlantic Monthly (252). Throughout their article, reasons on why money can sometimes buy happiness are explained. While some of the reasons given are effective, not all are satisfying answers for adults working diligently to make a living. Money is a part of everyone’s life, yet it is not always the cause of happiness.

695 Words |2 Pages

The materialistic value of money is unable to offer true happiness. However, factors such as family and friends can provide happiness to everyone. Prosperity cannot be bought, no matter how much money is spent. The only thing that can cause you to be truly happy is the memories you made in your life time with friends and family. Money can help get something off your mind by spending it, but the memories you made while spending your money will make you smile at any time in life. You can socialize with your loved ones and create memories with them. You do not always have to spend money to be happy, but you could make jokes and have a great time to create memories.

1091 Words |3 Pages

But “[when one’s] basic necessities are met, research has shown that additional money does not have a lot to do with happiness.” Owning large quantities of money doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be happy. Money is not the only thing that can make one content. Having other hobbies and challenges makes one equally happy. Some may be satisfied with money, but it will be spent on materialistic things that is not useful for the overall long term benefit of one in the future. One should be focused on more important factors that makes them happy, including relationships, pleasurable activities, and kindness to others. Kindness can be shown by spending money on others, to assist their life and enjoyment. According to the Zurich university, there was a study who surveyed a group of fifty people testing one’s level of happiness based on the action they perform. Twenty-five people were asked to share their earnings with others and be generous and the other group of twenty-five people spent all of their money by themselves without sharing. Levels of happiness was measured on a subjective scale and people who were generous boosted their

1043 Words |3 Pages

Happiness is a universal feeling and it is most commonly associated with a smile. In many countries there are different levels of happiness, in our country happiness is a goal that we all have. The obstacle to achieving this goal is “finding” happiness, which is an idea, not an object, and it can be hard to find. Many people try to find happiness by using books, videos, or listening to motivational speakers. The argument about money and if it can bring happiness is prevalent today and can be an engaging topic.

809 Words |2 Pages

From the survey psychologists made, it seems that what makes us happy may not always bring more meaning, and vice versa. Feeling happy was strongly correlated with seeing life as easy, pleasant and free from difficult or troubling events, while none of these things were correlated with a greater sense of meaning. They also find that money is positively correlated with greater levels of happiness. However, having enough money seems to make little difference in life’s sense of meaning. Therefore, perhaps instead of saying that “Money doesn’t buy happiness,” we ought to say that “Money doesn’t buy meaning.” Additionally, in Baumeister’s study, “givers” reported higher levels of meaning in their lives compared to the “takers”. The researchers also point out

1350 Words |3 Pages

As money can be really important, alongside to food to eat, a house to live in, and places to go from here to there, but for all of those things, you need money. So that’s when “money can buy happiness” expression comes in because many people think that since money can buy everything they want in life, then it can easily buy happiness. My parents lived a decent life style, they had the amount of an average person in Amman Jordan. Meaning that we weren 't filthy rich, but we also weren 't poor either. The amount of money we had was enough to make us happy. We didn’t struggle with anything like food or other necessities we needed. My parents always say that "it’s better than nothing" because looking at others who don’t have much money makes me

512 Words |2 Pages

Although it has been said that money is the root of all evil, many people actually believe that they would be happier if they were wealthier. Could this be correct? This essay will support the thesis that not only does the pursuit of wealth not lead to happiness; it may actually make us unhappy.

580 Words |2 Pages

Is wealth happiness? When you see someone who lives in a 20 million dollar house, drives multi-million dollar cars, it does not mean this person is entirely happy. In fact, wealth is a status symbol. It can make others assume if someone is happy, but it is not guaranteed that one have a happy life. A cliched phrase is used often in this modern society: “Money can’t buy happiness”. This phrase is common because it is true. People with high status and positions with extreme wealth can be unhappy, in contrast, others with no wealth nor status...

719 Words |2 Pages

Imagine, someone losing a close love one; they are already grieving but also their love one had a large amount of debt and lived an unhappy life with no exposure to new experiences. Happiness is the state of being joyful; it’s the feeling that comes when one knows life is good. However, the question is can money really buy happiness? According to Gretchen Rubin, “No money cannot buy happiness, but money can buy a lot of things that will contribute mightily to happiness.” Money can buy happiness when one wisely uses it for experience’s, helping others, and investing in life.

702 Words |2 Pages

Happiness is a difficult word to define. Everyone possesses different perspectives of happiness from their own experience. Some people would say money can buy you happiness because they buy you friends, while others disagree. From my own perspective, I personally believe money could not buy eternal joy into your life. Money could buy you the basic needs in life for example food. Having a lot of money could be used to purchase fancy and expensive goods, but the happiness would only be limited. Besides that, money cannot buy you the emotions like love. Money is desired by everyone, but it can’t buy you everything, for example: your health or a deceased loved one and the memories made with them. Happiness is not determined by what your bank account

707 Words |2 Pages

If one could get money everyday would that person be the happiest person alive? One's thoughts on this would be money only makes people happy in certain situations. If one was a millionaire and they got $20 it wouldn’t really make a difference to them. If someone was in poverty or close to being in poverty $20 make them super happy because they don’t have a lot of money. Money can only go so far with happiness because money can’t buy one’s family or friends, usually it takes personality and love to find those things. It’s understandable that people need money to do things, but in one’s opinion, if you put some thought into things and have friends/family their with one than one can be the happiest person

936 Words |2 Pages

The people who mostly say that it doesn 't buy happiness are usually limited to a usage of their money. Lee states that “ the additional happiness, brought by money, is temporary. Human happiness comes from the struggle for improvements . The spence of achievement, gained by overcoming the challenges of the life, also contributes to the happiness. This happiness may be temporary, but the continuous desire for more of the life’s good things guarantees that new struggles and achievements are always available for the replenishing the happiness.” Meaning that we keep buying new things to make us happier than the last thing we bought. For example let 's say I bought a new 2017 Toyota FRS it would make me really happy but for a short amount of time then I would sell then buy a better car to fulfill my happiness. Your can see come lay see this with celebrities buying bigger houses than the previous ones, but for what I would say, probably to fill it with bigger things to make them even happier than the previously were. I say if you have the funds to keep doing this over and over then I say by all means but if you do not, then I say find something else that make you feel happy with your

2019 Words |5 Pages

Well that answer could not be so far from the truth, money can 't buy happiness. Sound like a contradiction? Did I get your attention?... According to Gregory Karp, money can make a person happy. In his article “Money CAN buy happiness,” Karp believes that money can bring happiness to acquire basic life needs but once those basic needs are met discretionary use of money will also bring happiness. He continues later on in the article to explain some suggestions on how to spend for happinessKarp’s first point in his article is that happiness needs to be bought to some degree. In order to have the ability to be happy you need to have the ability to pay for basic necessities such as food and shelter. In studies it can be seen that, “…once people had enough to meet their basic needs, somewhere between $8,000 and $25,000 or the equivalent of that in various spots around the world, happiness leveled out.” (). I agree with this statement because any person that is homeless, does not have adequate shelter, or the money for food and water has survival in mind. The mind is consumed with the need to live another day it does not have time to waste energy on obtaing happiness. Happiness is a balance between being physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually (Life of

1106 Words |3 Pages

Now how does a person go about being happy, well let us examine one of the most common questions in reference to happiness, “can money buy happiness?” most people would say “yes.” The answer to this question will almost always be yes, because society and humans in general tend to be greedy creature always wanting more, from a better house to finer foods there is and always will be more to obtain. But is having these things what makes humans happy or is it the success of achieving your own...

621 Words |2 Pages

Many people argue that money is not the key to happiness. However, have you ever seen a sad person riding a Ferrari? Or have you ever seen a man crying because he is too rich? In fact, I have no doubt that you've seen a man crying, because he is too poor. Money brings a lot of things to our lives. Money gives us what we want, gives the possibility toward a better future, and brings love and friendship as well. Therefore money is the ultimate key to happiness.