A Controversial Take On 'Does Money Buy Happiness?' | George Mack

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[mactireliath]

Let’s lower the bar then:
Define Happiness as Basic Needs: Food, Shelter, Water, Clothes. Any decent quality of these items costs money.

[nitemareriosho]

I always say, " If money isn't buying you happiness you're shopping in the wrong place."

[qwerty-uyoe]

He actually found a way to add nothing new to the conversation but managed to complicate it even more

[jarde]

Money doesn’t buy happiness
But being broke buys stress and anxiety

[taylormanx]

Money buys freedom and freedom buys you happiness.

[carlmullerlane]

I have a Behavioural Science (Psychology) degree & I remember several studies investigated this. What was discovered was that it depends on your current financial situation & operates on a diminished returns basis; plus it's also dependant on your "relative wealth" in comparison to your social circles.

So money can indeed "buy happiness" if it elevates you out of poverty (so now you can buy your own home & afford quality healthcare, for instance) but less so if it turns you from a multi-millionaire into a billionaire. While even millionaires can be unhappy when their social circle have significantly more wealth than they do.

[andyf]

He doesn't understand the real world, bless him

[hobotify]

Money doesn't buy happiness, money solves problems. Which is pretty much the same thing.

[Convincing_Reality]

It seems like you're trying to articulate that while money might not be able to directly buy happiness it can solve some sources of misery.

[returntosender]

Happiness is more likely to acquire money than money is to buy happiness.

[EchoTangoSuitcase]

I don't know if you can BUY happiness, but you can damn sure rent it.

[ghstletter]

I heard this entire interview & i felt like it was a beautiful masterclass on: How to say nothing and everything at the same time in different words

[MrShyghost]

I feel like I am qualified to answer this question because I was on both sides. I was so poor I ate barely half a soup a day for months. And it was the cheapest instant soup. I used to cry while eating it knowing I would still be hungry.
Now I can easily afford to hire a private chef if I wanted to.
After a lot of ups and downs and learning about money and living with and without it, this is what I realized :
1. Lack of money is a misery to its core. Mentally and physically it destroys you.
2. Once you have enough money for basic needs like food, a place to live etc.. AND some saved money so you dont feel like a flat tire will ruin your life ; at that point money will not make you any happier. From that point on anything you buy will give you a dopamine hit with deminishing returns.
3. I "feel" the same in my giant house with an internal pool and sauna the same way when I lived in my small flat.
4. Most of your time isnt spent with your money or things you bought with it, most of your time you spend in your head.
5. Most of happines, or certainly the greatest form of happines comes from overcomming hardship. Im happy I made myself, not that I made money.
6. People want money to prove something to others and the greates irony of them all is, once you do make money, in most cases, you are so proud of yourself you dont even have a need to impress others anymore.
7. Not having money and picking yourself up and achieving something is the greatest expierence a human being can have.
Being proud of yourself is true happines.

Good luck, I hope you all make it.

[yeekiatunpro]

Happiness is a feeling, people can feel differently about the same exact thing. A guy can be over the moon buying a new car, and then saw his neighbor get a nicer car and now he's unhappy. Then the next day, his neighbor's car model had issues and had to get sent back to the factory. That makes the guy feel that he's got an eye for quality, and now he's happy about his purchase again. His purchase didn't change, but his happiness did. So the change in his happiness had nothing to do with the purchase at all. Money and happiness does not have a direct cause and effect relationship.

[jonathanmcculley]

The better way to say it would be “money CAN buy happiness” it just isn’t a guarantee. But having enough money guarantees peace of mind, food and shelter, and any basic necessities you might have.

[yadamano]

The question itself is supposed to allow the reader/listener to make thier own conclusion. It's simplicity is the point.

At face value, the pursuit of money alone, ie Greed, will not grant happiness.

Happiness is defined by the individual so if the person wants to have many friends, good. No amount of money or possessions will grant happiness to the individual in that case but it will solve other problems that person has. The question leaves that to interpretation

[charliecinnella]

I think a lot of people need to redefine what makes them happy.

[Sleepgarden]

"Money doesn't buy you happiness, but it does buy you everything else"

[guywalsh]

Health and Wealth will dramatically increase your chances of a happy life. It’s really just that simple.

[aldrichunfaithful]

a really simple solution to this question is to just reverse it, if you asked "does no money cause misery?" then the answer would be a unanimous yes. there are basic things we need in order to live a happy life, and many of those require money, so it's very difficult to be happy without money just like if you had a debilitating illness, a disability, no friends or no passions. i have a nasty injury that gutted my sports career and has made me live in constant pain and weakness, im 22 but i don't know if i'll ever be pain free or able to exercise and compete again which i used to love, so if an able bodied person told me that being physically fit wasn't necessary to be happy i'd tell them they're talking a load of sh*t. my injury also led me down a bad path so now i also don't have any friends or passions, and my career is going terribly so i'm worried about money, so not having my health has also ruined all these other aspects of my life. having no money does the exact same thing, so when wealthy people preach about money being useless they really have no idea what they're talking about