Does Money Buy Happiness?

Money and its ability to make the human race happy

Money is a part of everything we do, we use it in every walk of life and the value of money is different for everyone. It is an asset and a tool that can help create opportunities for people and therefore, this means there may be less opportunities for the people without. We can use money to hinder our problems but does money just create more problems?

Short term happiness

We can use money to help us get through tough situations that we may be experiencing in life. Many people use shopping and spending as a form of “retail therapy”, when people are stressed and need to find a way to calm down and relax it is very common for them to spend more money. However, there is only so much shopping one person can do and therefore money only provides short term happiness. The problems people have will still be there even after they spend their money and the way we feel when we purchase an item will soon wear off and then it's back to reality. Money isn't always the solution in the long term, therefore its important to recognise the true meaning of our unhappiness to find the long term solution which will subsidise what is causing the sadness.

There's more to life than money

We often believe that money is important and there is no doubt that money is important in so many different aspects. For example it helps us meet our basic needs of food, shelter and healthcare. Without these necessities it makes it very difficult for humans to survive however, this isn't completely essential because there is more to life than money. Being healthy, having a good support net of family and friends, freedom and education are also crucial in helping people to have a happy life. A person can have millions of pounds and have no friends or family therefore this means they may be lonely and unhappy because they don't have anyone to share their achievements with. On the other hand a person may not have a lot of money but be surrounded by lots of friends and family to help support them in the difficult times they are going through. Showing that having money doesn't automatically make a person happier.

Opportunities

Money creates more opportunities for people in so many ways, one way is that it means they are able to reach people and connect with people who can help them develop their careers and help them to grow. Money also enables people to afford private education and also pay for extra curricular activities and tutors which widens their options. Not only in terms of education but having money means people can afford bigger houses in safer communities, they can travel to different places that they might not be able to if they didn't have the money they did. People who are less fortunate don't get the chance to experience these things and therefore have less opportunities in life.

More money more problems?

It can be argued that having more money just leads to more problems, this is because having more money means you pay more taxes, you have more responsibility and it can actually create a burden which can affect people's mental health. When a person has an event in life which means they now have a lot more money than they had previously e.g. winning the lottery this can cause them to be very overwhelmed. It is very common for lottery winners to soon become depressed just a short while after winning the lottery. This is because this great deal of money causes personal issues such as divorce or family problems. When people find out a family member or friend has won the lottery they soon want to be involved which means it's hard to decipher people's true intentions. Furthermore, some believe that people who have money can't have problems and therefore the people who have money no longer feel that they can express how they are feeling. This leaves them with no one to talk to and no one to turn to, causing them to be lonely which can have a serious affect on their mental health.

Both money and happiness are subjective, money can buy happiness to an extent. If a person's problems are only financial then yes money can buy happiness. However, when someone has deeper problems, then money can only be a short term solution to happiness because our problems will still be there.