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Happiness




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Can money buy happiness?

Yes. But you don't know the price of happiness and where to buy it for you. If you have infinite amount of money and you know exactly what you want to do/have/know, you will be happy. For most of people, they either A. Don't have that much of money(maybe they have more than you but still not enought) or B. They don't know what they really want It depends on what makes you happy. Money can buy ganja (marijuana). Thats pretty close to happyness. so close you might not tell the difference most of the time. A society with class (financial) inequality cannot achieve any sort of collective happiness. The amount of money one has will not determine his/her individual happiness. The common denominator is money itself. The system (money, competition, waste, etc.) is the problem. [1] Or maybe not so, in old rusty car one can at least think something like this: "if I only had more money my problems would disappear". In other words, there would be some hope that life can be better. With BMW you are in fact aware of the fact that money does not help, so you don't get that specific hope. Money cannot buy happiness, but it is much more pleasant crying in BMW than on the bike. Although ultra wealthy may feel fulfilled as they accomplished their goals while *creating* the wealth, their children may feel emptiness, uselessness, and lack of purpose since they are provided with everything without having a need to create anything. Also, they may feel neglected by their parents who focus more on money than on family. In case of these children, money not only not buys happiness, but buys sadness. There is no guarantee that it can. Money can usually buy more happiness though... if we are truly happy in our current state it is likely with more money we could be even happier. However, if we are basically unhappy more money might make us happy but there is no guarantee. It all depends on the individual in question. The ultra wealthy are not always happier but in many cases there are. Happiness is more about fulfilling your desires than money.[2] Conclusion of the above experiment is wrong. The experimenter assumes there can be only one motive for choosing lesser amount, which is an evidence of his lower intelligence than that of most Harvard students asked. Higher income of all people increases the cost of goods, while all people having twice lower income than me lowers prices and brings my buying power up. So even thought selecting less absolute wealth, most Harvard students would effectively have higher purchasing power -> wealth. People tend to compare their lot with that of others. In one striking example, students at Harvard University were asked whether they would prefer (a) $50,000 a year while others got half that or (b) $100,000 a year while others got twice as much. A majority chose (a). They were happy with less, as long as they were better off than others. [3] We find that the higher the income of others in one's age group, the lower one's happiness, with and without controls for age, health, education, marital status, and other correlates of happiness. Since real incomes tend to increase over most of one‟s working life, this finding implies that working-age families must earn more and more over time to maintain a constant level of happiness. This is an example of what is called a "hedonic treadmill"... Does relative wealth make us happier than absolute wealth? Wealth is a tool that gives you choices, but it can't compensate for a life not fully lived and it certainly can't create a sense of peace within you. Although money may not buy happiness, what money does do is buy me the time to do what I love and pay other people to do what I hate doing. By doing more what I love I will probably be more happy. [4] Below a certain income, people are unhappy and they get progressively unhappier the poorer they get. Above that we get an absolutely flat line. Money does not buy you experiential happiness but lack of money certainly buys you misery.[5][6]Can money buy happiness?





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References:

1. http://www.thevenusproject.com/
2. http://www.commandyourwish.com/cmd.php/?af=1358550
3. http://www.economist.com/node/1974139
4. http://www.getmotivation.com/prosperity/become-rich-Robert-Kiyosaki.htm
5. http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory.html
6. http://news.illinois.edu/news/10/0701happiness.html


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