EDITORIAL | Why Money Can Actually Buy Happiness And Why We Should Stop Saying Otherwise
Belle Ashley Iori Sy
Feb 20, 2023
3 min read
Money can make you happier if it improves your standard of living. Perhaps, anyone who claims that money can’t buy happiness just doesn’t know how to spend it right or has too much of it already.
Irrespective of what some people think, most of the time, happiness requires money. Let's start by assessing the obvious reasons here: wealth allows us to meet our basic needs, such as food, shelter, and healthcare. Hence, it is paramount that we comply with these demands; otherwise, both our welfare and the well-being of the community, in general, could suffer immensely. Besides, it is our shared responsibility to act toward a society in which everybody has a sufficient supply of the said necessities and is therefore safe. Sure, others can still smile despite not having enough food for the whole family, but no one can tell me that they are genuinely satisfied with the lifestyle.
Time and time again, it has been proven that one’s sense of security that typically comes from having enough money is often lacking among individuals worried about unplanned medical expenses or losing their employment. Did you know that based on a 2017 survey, almost 50% of Americans worry about their economic state, and this happened to have a massive impact on their connections, nutrition, interpersonal relationships, mental health, and even their capacity to work? With this in mind, acquiring adequate funds to cover our expenses as well as some savings is unquestionably essential for our happiness. Further, as Tom Rath writes in his book Wellbeing, we could enhance our relatively brief happiness if we have more power over how we utilize our time. For illustration, it might enable us to spend less time working and much more time with our family members. It could also enable us to live in close proximity to our place of employment. Simply put, spending money can streamline our way of living and who doesn’t want that, right?
Moreover, a person's health might also be severely hampered by impoverishment. For instance, low-income areas usually have worse clinics and are less likely to have access to community spaces that promote health, including potable water and adequate infrastructure. Anyone can agree with me that a slew of severe problems generally follows poverty to the extent of forcing an individual into labor at a young age—preventing them from finishing their education, thereby impeding them from securing a higher-paying profession as well. But imagine living “worry-free”, and by that I mean free from expenses, that is without a doubt a life many of us daydream about.
Contrarily, consumerism is what brings about people's misery. Although having extra money to cover necessities and act as a safety net is necessary for contentment, there seem to be signs that having more funds may not have a substantial positive impact on our welfare and may even have the opposite effect in some circumstances. To some extent, it is agreeable that the joy of possessing things is invariably fleeting and will soon fade. Still, our desires tend to be bottomless since as we earn more, it grows. Huge debt and the anxiety associated with it can be the result of this too.
While I don't guarantee that having money will help fix all of your shortcomings, any issue that money can resolve ceases to exist when you possess it. Correspondingly, there is substantial research on the topic of whether money can truly buy happiness, and the facts support both claims. Anyhow, it appears that genuine happiness also comes from strong interpersonal bonds and life events rather than from materialistic things. There is evidence, however, that suggests those with the lowest levels of income are much more susceptible to anxiety and other psychological issues, given the financial constraints.
In conclusion, what remains true is that money can make you happier if it improves your standard of living. Perhaps, anyone who claims that money can’t buy happiness just doesn’t know how to spend it right or has too much of it already. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for everybody so money came to be an integral part of their lives towards being happy. Not to say that it’s the only thing that can bring out such emotion in one’s life. But because others disregard the idea of it being helpful sometimes, opening a discussion like this is all the more required. Ultimately, let’s stop glorifying resiliency and start working hard for our desires that equate to happiness in this lifetime.
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