Can money buy happiness, or does the phrase ring true?
People often say that money doesn’t buy happiness, and this age-old phrase is hardly ever argued against. The phrase itself is fairly self-explanatory. It means that no matter how much money you have, you won’t be happy simply because you have that money, because you can’t purchase happiness. No matter how rich you are, your wealth won’t cure any unhappiness in your life. But what if money did buy happiness? Hannah Turcotte and James Stanley are two individuals with opinions on this matter.
“Money isn’t the direct cause of my happiness, but without it I wouldn’t be able to do or have things that cost money and also make me happy. Being able to go anywhere I want and travel are things that make me happy. Without a car, I wouldn’t be able to do that. So, in a sense, I suppose there are things that make me happy that I have to have money for,” Hannah said.
Hannah also added that she gets stressed out both when she has more and less money, showing that money can have the opposite effect on happiness. “When I have less money, I’m stressed because I can’t afford things. But when I do have more money, that stresses me out, too, because I have to use it to buy important things such as food, bills and gifts. It just seems to disappear so quickly,” she said.
James had some differing opinions. “I do believe that money doesn’t buy happiness. When I think of the things that make me happy in life, I think of my family and my friends. You can’t buy either of those things. You’re given your family, you can’t buy that. And if you’re buying your friends, well, you need some new, real friends because they aren’t your friends. Nothing in the world means more to me than my friends and family, not even any amount of money,” he said.
So, does money buy happiness? Or is the old phrase true? Whether you are rich, poor or somewhere in between, we all have things in life that make us unhappy. Perhaps it is dependent on the individuals for whether money is something that helps them be happy. Or maybe money has nothing to do with it at all. Regardless of how you feel, we all have one thing in common: our happiness is most important, regardless of what causes it.
