Money might not buy happiness, but it sure as hell solves a lot of problems that make people unhappy.
The question is whether someone has "enough" money. Until you can live comfortably, more money DOES buy more happiness. Once someone can comfortably live and engage with interests, more money doesn't buy more happiness.
When someone says, "money doesn't buy happiness." what they're actually saying is they have enough money and they do not understand how poverty works.
A billionaire doesn't buy billion times as much clothes or food more than a comfortable middle class person.
Money solve a lot of problems we aren't trying to solve (as society) collectively.
Well, as a society we could solve the problem with money. We're all too happy to print more money for people who already have lots of it, why not do so for people who don't?
Money doesn't buy happiness.
What it does is eliminate and prevent most causes of human unhappiness, and practically all unhappiness based in meeting basic human needs.
And I'm sorry, but daddy not being proud of you or mommy dying young when you have means doesn't equate to the misery of rooting through a dumpster out of hunger or having a pig kick you out of an underpass into the rain to die of exposure.
I used to be on medication for depression until I got a high-paying job. Turns out being poor was the root to most problems in my life.
It's expensive to be poor. That makes things very depressing indeed.
Is that the Terry Pratchett boot thing? I'll be disappointed if that isn't mentioned.
Edit: There we go:
Chapters:
- 00:00 - Intro
- 01:50 - The Boots Theory Of Economic Unfairness
Same friend! Constant panic attacks that send me to the ER which would leave me with a giant bill. Making 3x my former income and life is good and got off all the meds. Money solves a shitload of problems.
Money does not buy happiness. But poverty sure causes a lot of misery.
Money may not buy happiness, but it certainly reduces suffering.
Money maximizes the opportunity for happiness.
I grew up dirt poor. It wasn't until I worked my way into a better career and now make decent money. Let me yell you, having enough money to cover bills and eat healthier does solve most problems.
Yep. Not being constantly petrified of an unexpected bill is a type of happiness!
Relevant study: https://www.princeton.edu/~deaton/downloads/deaton_kahneman_high_income_improves_evaluation_August2010.pdf
tl;dr: Happiness increases logarithmically with income, leveling off at about $75,000/year (at least in 2010).
That's about $105k in today's dollars.
You know, typical middle class income. /s
I think the amount of improvement to your life, money brings is on a logarithmic curve. The more you have the less it matters. So it seems logical to take from those where the impact on life is least and give some of it to those it matters most
Not having enough money makes you unhappy, but money does not make you happy.
There's a study done a while ago that said something to the effect of: you need at least 100k (USD) per year. Up until then, the money increases your ability to be happy. But after that point, it doesn't make you any more happy.
Happiness comes from being able to take care of your body, mind, and spirit (spirit not in the religious sense, but in a feeling of having purpose and understanding oneself).
I would love to see more intelligent conversation around this topic.
There's absolutely rock solid research that money contributes happiness to a point (I think it's $75k household income per year, but that's likely outdated now).
Beyond that, it's not a key differentiator. People take the second half and generalize it, which is incorrect.
Change the narrative. Once people are paid a fair living wage, incremental happiness comes primarily from other places. But until that point, money absolutely brings happiness.
Excess money may not buy happiness, but lack of money causes a lot of unhappiness.
The study you're referring to was basically that. There has been some follow-up, including https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2016976118 that suggests any plateau, if one exists, is more like $400-500k. The latter study used continuous sampling via https://go.trackyourhappiness.org, where the former did retrospective, daily, binary sampling, so they're not exactly comparable. i.e.: if you ask someone 6 times a day to rate their happiness 1-10 right then, you're going to get different results than if you ask them whether yesterday was a good day.
There's a whole weird thing people do where they can be quite satisfied with their life at any particular moment, but dissatisfied when asked about their life overall. I suspect that the $75k plateau is more of the latter, where the lack of plateau is more of the former.
A lot of people have brought up the point that money can buy safety and security. I just wanted to refence Maslow's heirarchy of needs as that solidified my understanding some time ago.
Happiness is a constant struggle, and if your foundation is weak and crumbling the whole pyramid will suffer for it.
"Money doesn't buy happiness" was first coined when people could afford a house with an average income. We're starving and that one time our grandparents over-ate at a buffet is being shoved down our throats.
Money don't buy happiness, but no money buys a lot of misery!
Money can buy you the time to do the things that make you happy
Money can also remove the things that make you unhappy.
Nah. Money buys physical security. Happiness comes from within.
Oh and everyone should have a fair wage and physical security.
Happiness can be elusive and multidimensional, but money sure gets rid of a lot of daily stress. Like most of it. And when you get rid of stress, that relief can sure feel like happiness by comparison to what you're used to.
Happiness comes from within only after your basic needs are met. I don't care how Zen and optimistic you are. At a certain point chronic hunger makes it too hard to feel happy.
Money doesn't buy happiness but it does remove money related stress.
Regardless everyone should be paid a fair wage and in an ideal world money should not be a concern for day to day life.
This has been studied pretty extensively and it turns out that money definitely does buy happiness, but only to a certain point after which you get diminishing returns and eventually no increase in happiness.
It's been awhile since I've looked at the literature, but if memory serves, most people max out on happiness with an upper middle-class income, so probably 3-4 hundred thousand/year for a couple in the US. After that you don't get any increase in happiness and are actually better off giving any extra money to charities and/or sharing with friends and family.
I don't want to be filthy rich because I think I'd do a lot of dumb things more than I would doing charitable things.
I just want to be paid enough so it doesn't feel like I look at how little I have left to play around going "eh, I'm okay with this" when I know I'm not okay with this in the back of my mind.
Time to build a massive mansion and a literal castle and an underground train system connecting them able to be operated by one person (ie me) because fuck other people.
Everyone here is just saying money buys happiness with more words than needed lol.
When I was in college, they were still teaching Maslowe's Pyramid as textbook knowledge. I've since heard people try to walk it back as a flawed model, but...I think it's a useful concept here.
If you are struggling to meet your biological and safetey needs, you bet your scrotal meat money can buy happiness. Too many people on this earth could have their lives permanently changed for the better with 2,000 American dollars.
On the other hand, the set who scolds the piano tuner to make sure BOTH full grand pianos in the main hall are in tune with each other this time, who legitimately struggle to think of anything else they could actually buy and end up going to restaurants where they pour chocolate sauce on your bare hands for you to lick off as an "experience" genuinely aren't made happier by addition of cash...they're operating at the interpersonal and self-actualization levels, and not particularly well because, well...they're deeply flawed humans whose dads can afford generations of yes men. Nothing can buy these people happiness, especially money.
Not to worry, the goal post on “fair wage” will always be extended. I remember fast food protests for $15/hr. You got it! Only now rent has doubled.
I buy my groceries without concern for price, my bills are all on auto pay and my bank account balance slowly increases. Money has bought me freedom from unhappiness at the very fucking least.
I'd be in favor of a UBI, and Universal healthcare in addition to a fair wage at the cost of slightly less growth.
I've got 99 problems and at least 98 of them can be solved with a fair wage and eating the rich
Money solves existential dread.
That's the point. There is a limit. If you below, you're not happy but you can't extrapolate that too much
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