When I was an undergrad, our professor once told the class that he doesn't believe in the saying that money cannot buy happiness. He asked us how we can possibly be happy if we don't have the money to buy food for ourselves or our starving family.
That lesson stuck with me. I had always thought that as long as I had only my family and my friends, I would be content. I did not think that social support was only one cause for happiness.
Money cannot buy happiness as an emotion in itself—that much of the saying I agree with. However, it can buy happiness to the extent that it can be used to purchase events, experiences, and objects that can lead one to be happy.
Money can buy good health. It can purchase food, medicines, as well as health services. Ask yourself: are you happy when you and your loved ones are strong and not dying? Don't you worry when your children or your grandparents are sick?
Money can buy books and toys. Do you feel happy with a good book? If your children are enjoying toy blocks, don't you derive happiness from theirs?
Let's consider the World Happiness Index. This index measures the happiness of people all over the world.
One way that it does this is by asking people to rank their well-being and then weigh it against the country's level of GDP, its population's life expectancy, the freedom experienced by people, corruption level, social support, and generosity.
If you take a closer look at these factors, a country cannot have a high level of GDP without money to finance the production of goods and services. A population cannot have a high life expectancy if funds are not spent on access to healthcare.
This index shows that money is indeed used to indirectly buy happiness. However, this does not mean that it is the only way to attain happiness.
We see in many films and maybe even in the lives of people we know, that no amount of money can make up for a loved one's absence or an unstable relationship. The World Happiness got it right too: social support likewise plays a vital role to our well-being.
A quote by Joan Rivers can sum up the thought of this article: "People say that money is not the key to happiness, but I always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key made."
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