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Mohammad Mohammadipour

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Can Money Buy Happiness?

Maybe more cash does make people happier. Especially salient are analyses done by University of Pennsylvania economists Daniel Sacks, Betsey Stevenson, and Justin Wolfers. In their updated 2010 study, “Subjective Well-Being, Income, Economic Development and Growth,” the three compare subjective well-being survey data from 140 countries with those countries' income and economic growth rates. The researchers find that within individual countries richer people are happier than poorer; people in richer countries are happier than people in poorer countries; and over time increased economic growth leads to increased happiness. “These results together suggest that measured subjective well-being grows hand in hand with material living standards,” they conclude..

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    Tim Petersen

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    Jan 30 2013: Speaking only from personal experience, I can share with you that money was unable to buy happiness for me. What it did do, from the back door of the search for happiness, is relinquish many of my sorrows and stresses, which caused my already state of happiness to become more profound. I would classify money in the 'civilized' world to be that of an "enabler." It will definitely enable your present and future path in your search for happiness.
    Speaking hypothetically, now: If, I were living a natural life as opposed to this life of un-natural realities that our predecessors have procured, I would have to answer with a resounding "NO!", Money has no relevance, we do not need it, and we would despise it with our foresight. To me, it is only something else designed which we really never needed at the time of its inception, but now that it is here, we can not survive without it. Like so many of our current technological advances. Who do these many inventions advance? Another good question....
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      natasha nikulina 50+

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      Jan 31 2013: "We become tools of our tools"
      Thoreau said it in the middle of the XIX cent !
      As a species defined by our technologies I would say we have been on this path since the invention of the wheel.
      Or even earlier.
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        Tim Petersen

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        Jan 31 2013: thanks natasha, Thoreau is timeless, able to see tomorrow from a perspective as if looking back at yesterday. the wheel...what a joke, huh? someone afraid of a little work or afraid of leaving all their junk behind cursed us. my aspirations lie with the many cultures alive, yet today, who still find no useful purpose with the wheel. In our society, we are tools of our tools, benefiting our owners well, though. thanks, again. always refreshing and insightful to share with you, my friend
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          natasha nikulina 50+

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          Jan 31 2013: Hi, Tim,
          i was searching for that point in the recorded human history where the humanity went wrong... and came up with the idea, that there was no such a point. "Nothing has independent existence from everything else." there are no points anywhere.
          Human mind started to shape itself during a long, long period of time about which we know so little, if anything at all. And ' wheel' came from the domain of human imagination; it’s interesting, that the imagination is the land of “What ifs”. “if” brakes the flow of reality into two possibilities A or B, or more.
          If not some " cultures alive, yet today, who still find no useful purpose with the wheel " we wouldn't even have a possibility to ask the question : what if..? And would have no idea about the price we payed for a wheel .
          And coming back to timeless Thoreau : " It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all."
          Thanks for responding ! Genuinely happy to share with you ! :)
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        Tim Petersen

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        Feb 1 2013: are you sure you are not "natasha rumi nikulina?:) I love that place your words and message comes from. perhaps, as a small child you may have swallowed a little piece of the meta-physical universe....
        truthfully, I think we were all born with it there, inside us, already.

        uni-verse........................................................................................................................one-song

        a beautiful thought to ponder
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          natasha nikulina 50+

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          TED Translator
          Feb 1 2013: I have been pondering ...and pondering ...and now i try to listen to the song.
          It's beautiful, it's what joy is all about.
          Thank you for your kind words, but i don't think i deserve rumi as my middle name.
          Actually, what names are ? I love rumi ! :)
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      Krisztián Pintér 200+

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      Jan 31 2013: more precisely, you were unable to buy yourself happiness with money.
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        Tim Petersen

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        Jan 31 2013: greetings Krisztian, often accused, and rightly so, of over-elaboration, you have stated my point concisely leaving more time to pursue genuine happiness, which cost no more than a little effort, proper attitude, and a will to make this planet better for everyone who travels behind us. it is a pleasure to meet you
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      Christy Reserva

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      Feb 4 2013: It's ironic that with having money in the first place, it simply isn't enough to give you what you were looking for unless you hoped that money can provide you with happiness instead of adding more of what you already have. There is definitely a price in return to having acquired so much. I don't believe that money itself is what robs one of true happiness... it's the love of money and in having accumulated too much material goods that either causes people to lose appreciation for it and even their own lives or cause them to become too self-indulgent.

      You're right about the fact that in its first invention, we really didn't need it except now it's hard to remove it from the equation where everything has a cost and need something in exchange if it's what you really want to have. It's sad what the world has come to and I just hope that more people see that searching for happiness doesn't have to depend so much on money but rather on the choices that they make in life.
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        Tim Petersen

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        Feb 4 2013: Less than 5 minutes ago: Hello Christy, it seems so obvious today, or looking from a removed position You are correct in your assessment. I became dependent on its false sense of security. I am afraid this has been part of the plan from whence it received its inception. We traded our ability to provide for ourselves to accept currency for effort , goods, and services provided, which we now must trade for the survival we used to provide autonomously (such as indigenous peoples), in the trade off, self sufficiency for cash, we lost our confidence and ability to live free from fear. I believe when we look at old pictures of indigenous people there is a sense of confidence we recognize but wonder how they have it, all they needed for the survival and protection of all they loved stood within the moccasins on their feet
        The people who believe themselves to be independently wealthy are really the most dependent of others. Their money is traded to a multitude of people to provide their existence and security, their confidence is false, conceived only in their minds, but their fear is real, leaving them to be ruthless actors, hating and judging to justify their selfishness.
        Whether or not, if you have money or you are without monetary resources, we all live in fear of tomorrow, we all worry for our children's future, we all worry for our own future, however, the ones with money have a false sense of security and with in this psychological denial they are out of touch with primal obligations They think they have protection, but in reality we all know anything less than self sufficiency is hope. Don't forget Hope came from Pandora's Box along with the rest of the evil in the world, because hope usually is, and can be evil. It came from the box it belonged in. Hope has never resolved anything.
        I wasn't looking for more, but I was afraid of losing what I had, and it wasn't much; really.
        Thanks for sharing Christy, pleasure to meet you

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