Can money buy happiness?

The very question which has been debated about for years and years on.  ‘Yes, no, maybe or to some extent’ are the kind of responses one may think about. Something that has been the root of all power, wealth and violence in many nation. Is it money that makes man corrupt or he corrupts himself with it? There are many faces to look at regarding this question. However there is no right or wrong answer, it all depends on how people feel about it. This article also looks at the link between happiness and the amount of money one has as well as what other people think about it.

We live in a world surrounded by people who driven by a hunger for wealth and power. For many generations this been reinforced subliminally in our minds that money is a source of happiness. I remember when I was a little child in the 2^nd grade. The teacher made us write a composition about our futures. Many of the youngsters had written about how they would love to live in a big house, have many cars and be rich. No one would wrote about how they would love to live a peaceful happy life in the future. It is just always assumed that if you have money your happiness follows after. This proves 

that even a little children between the ages of 5-7 view money 

as a source of happiness.

But why has money always been seen as the one item that bring happiness? Of course we need it to buy the necessities as well as recreational items. Money also provides us with services such as healthcare, education, banking etc. However I feel people have gone overboard to the extent that they value money more than a human life. If you could steal, kill and destroy for the sake of money what does that say about what money does to people? Are you stealing, killing and destroying in order to buy your happiness or in order to buy material items that will one day depreciate and the cycle of stealing and killing others will repeat itself.

Upon interviewing a couple of my friends what they thought about money buying happiness many different responses were given. One of them said ‘yes money does buy you happiness because being broke is no joke.’ She stressed that when you live in poverty you experience many problems which make you unhappy. Whilst the other friend’s response was ‘No, money can only buy happiness but for a while.’ Her argument was that people use money to buy material items that they think can replace the feeling of emptiness inside. Instead of seeing that happiness comes from within, that is why many people live very lavish lives but are not satisfied because they lack a certain inner factor.

Therefore I think it can be concluded that there is a link between being rich and happy and being poor and unhappy. However to some extent this link can be proven. According to a CNN (2012) survey poll done about the happiest countries in the world Costa Rica, Vietnam and Colombia top the list. Not only are these countries the happiest but they are considered 3^rd world countries which refers to developing countries. This proves that we do not need money to bring happiness in our lives.

In conclusion I believe money does not bring absolute happiness. It is about finding happiness within yourselves because we can never be truly satisfied and happy with our lives until we are happy with ourselves. And we can never be happy with ourselves unless we accept what God has given us. Smile every day when you look in the mirror. Money may not buy happiness but it is something we should be thankful of because not many people have that opportunity to have money to buy what they would like, instead they live every day in order to buy what they need.

 References

CNN (2012). World’s new happiest country. Available:  http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/denmark-ousted-100-latest-worlds-happiest-country-561826