Money can buy security.
People are naturally happy when they’re secure, so it seems like money buys happiness. Really, it’s just allowing you to climb out of the hole of despair we were all born into.
would money solve ALL my problems? no.
would money give me the time and resources to fix the problems that momey cant solve? abso fucking lutely
Only the rich say this and mean it.
They say it because more money doesn’t make them more happy.
Conveniently ignoring they have no financial stressors.
The rich do have financial stressors. And they will argue with you that their stressors are more stressful than the stressors of the poor, because they are more ‘sophisticated’.
one of the biggest stressors for a rich person is the idea they may be perceived as poor.
and your expenses can always have a larger threshold, hedonistic treadmill and all that.
And this is what every study on this has found. More money does equate to more happiness. Right up to around the point where you have enough to cover all your expenses, save some money, and still have a little left over for hobbies and such. Once all your basic needs are met comfortably, more money doesn’t really lead to more happiness. But most people are below that line.
objectively or subjectively?
we can calculate a income/expenses for those things, but that doesn’t mean people who are in or above that threshold will feel that way. about how people feel about things is how they measure their happiness.
the COL for my city for ‘stability’ is 70K for one adult. But nobody making that kind of money in my city would ever self-report they are living comfortably, typically the expectation is you make double as a bare minimum, and ‘comfortably’ would be like 3-5x that, and frankly most folks I meet who are making 300K+ love to tell you how uncomfortable and unstable and awful their life is. I’ve never met anyone making 100K+ who said they are stable and happy… other than myself but I’m also considered to be mentally ill because of my attitude about that.
Folks always want more and their subjective expectations will adjust, no matter how much they have, because we experience these things subjectively and for a lot of people ‘happiness’ is measured in terms whether or not you are doing better than your social peers and/or your social expectations are being met.
I’d hazard a guess that the only way that it might happen is philanthropy.
Happiness is not the goal. I want stability. I want a full belly, and a roof over my head. Money is the only way to get that in this fucked up world. If happiness is a by-product, cool.
once you have those things… you’ll want more and your definition of stability will adjust.
it’s just how we are hardwired, there isn’t much getting around that, short of relgious/spiritual beliefs that restructure your brain to reward ascetisim.
Honestly the only thing is probably change about my current situation would be to get out of renting. I’ve been in this place for ten years, but it still doesn’t feel as stable as I’d like.
I like to explain it like this: Money is like a pile of firewood and happiness is the fire itself. Just having a pile of firewood won’t make the fire magically apear, but if you have a little sparkle, the more firewood you throw at it the bigger it gets. Money won’t make a depressed person happy but it will increase your hapiness from 0.01 to 100000
and if you grow up being used to a massive bonfire, you think everyone else also has one too and they are weird for not having one.
and as you grow up you expect your bonfire to be bigger and bigger and you wonder how anyone else can be happy without that.
And hoarding all the firewood is a dick move, you got to cut down trees to get it, a little fire warms and comforts but too much consumes and destroys. P deece analogy
They’re right though, money can’t buy happiness, but it certainly can remove a lot of the things that impede it.
All the bills being paid and the fridge being full sure puts a smile on my face and a song in my heart though.
Money can’t buy you happiness, that is why they hoard it.
