Does Money Buy Happiness?

[cozener]

I don't think you can buy happiness but money certainly paves the road. So in a way, you can. Having money can "get you in the door" so to speak. When you're rich you have access to many things that poor people don't (like supermodels)

[Odetta]

no... but it helps

[Daghain]

:thumbsup:

What O said.

[Matt]

I think that money changes everything and I'm not sure I would want..."rich"

The taxes alone are incredible. :lol:

However, I did always want a roof on my head and cars that start. Money to save for my retirement and enough to help the kids if they needed it.

Once I was there, it was hard to care about making anymore to be perfectly honest.

[jayson]

It can buy (or rent) comfort and niceties, which can certainly make you happy, at least temporarily, but personally, I derive happiness from things money can't buy.

[razz]

Money buys happiness. Because if you don't have money, you can't pay the rent, and they throw you out on your ass, then your completely miserably. But if you have too much money... (well i can't finish, i ain't rich.)

but it's not about the pay, it's about the fringe benefits, as Mr. Sharpton would say.

[Girlystevedave]

I think that money would relieve a lot of the stresses in my life, but I will always always find something to worry about.

[turtlex]

I sure would like to find out....
... send donations, I'll be sure to post and let you know how it goes.

:)

[Hannah]

I voted yes, but ...

There are no absolutes in life. For some people (myself included) money would not buy happiness per se, but it would certainly multiply my existing happiness tenfold. For other people it depends on the amount, the personality, and how they came into the money.

[Girlystevedave]

I guess I can't help but think of 'worst case scenarios'. I think: I could win a million dollars in the lottey, and my mom could die the same day. The money sure as hell isn't going to mean anything to me then.

[Wuducynn]

I voted "Yes but..." For some folk it can, like me. Some others not. And even some others it can sometimes and sometimes not. Blanket statements almost always fail. Except the blanket statement that I'm the worlds biggest asshole.

[Brice]

I voted "Yes but..." For some folk it can, like me. Some others not. And even some others it can sometimes and sometimes not. Blanket statements almost always fail. Except the blanket statement that I'm the worlds biggest asshole.

I think we can all agree with this. :grouphug:


As for the question the thread addresses, my answer is no. Absolutely not. Never. If you can't find happiness within yourself even when you're destitute; you'll usually find it just as hard or even harder to find if you became rich.

[Wuducynn]

As for the question the thread addresses, my answer is no. Absolutely not. Never. If you can't find happiness within yourself even when you're destitute; you'll usually find it just as hard or even harder to find if you became rich.

Oh go hug and sodomize a tree, you dirty, stinking hippie freak.

[Daghain]

:lol:

I just visualized Brice in a tie-dyed t-shirt and love beads. *snort*

[Wuducynn]

:lol:

I just visualized Brice in a tie-dyed t-shirt and love beads. *snort*

Yeah, and loudly grunting while humping a tree.

[razz]

:|
:|
:wtf:
oh my fuckign god!
:rofl:

[BeDaN]

A lot of my problems present and past stem from lack of money. So I voted yes. I wouldn't want to be rich rich because that's when the psycho's start coming your way, but I would love to live comfortably.

[Brice]

As for the question the thread addresses, my answer is no. Absolutely not. Never. If you can't find happiness within yourself even when you're destitute; you'll usually find it just as hard or even harder to find if you became rich.

Oh go hug and sodomize a tree, you dirty, stinking hippie freak.

See, I've offered happiness to Matthew by giiving him another (like he needed one) excuse to insult someone.

stupid fuckin' bitch!


:lol:

I just visualized Brice in a tie-dyed t-shirt and love beads. *snort*


...it's been quite a long time. :lol:

[Daghain]

Don't worry Brice we're not laughing with you, we're laughing at you. :lol:






Just kidding.:wub:

[razz]

Just kidding.:wub:

naw, i was laughing at him. :evil:

[fernandito]

Yes. Yes it does.

[Woofer]

I voted No, but... it would sure go a long way toward consoling me in my unhappiness.

http://psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/laugh.gif http://psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/cash.gif

[Jean]

I voted Yes. I know all that can be, and has been during the course of human history, said against it, but money could make such a big difference for me that at present I can't think of it as of anything but happiness incarnate.

[ManOfWesternesse]

Yes.

[cozener]

Hey laugh at Brice if you want to but you haven't seen his girlfriend...

http://www.tportal.hr/2007/05/10/0288007.4.jpg

[Letti]

Wow, what an interesting poll.
I voted for no, but...
No, it can't because most of the people are not able to handle money. That's the truth. It's a quite evil joke of life. You need money to live... to be able to eat and exist. The more money you have the easier your life becomes... BUT as I have written most of the people are not ready to be able to live with their money. They are not ready for the freedom the money can give them. So they can find themselves in a dark hole with lots of useless money in their pocket.
That's why I can't say yes to this question.
So my answer is NO but it can help a lot (and it can ruin a lot, too).

[Wuducynn]

Letti is wrong. If I had the money to buy her a first class plane ticket over here and put her up in the finest hotels and pay for her trip around the country visiting everyone she wants and just generally getting to see the U.S, I would do it in an instant and that would make Letti and me, deliriously happy.

[agrabin]

I sure would like to find out....
... send donations, I'll be sure to post and let you know how it goes.

:)

turtlex......

:)

[Letti]

Letti is wrong. If I had the money to buy her a first class plane ticket over here and put her up in the finest hotels and pay for her trip around the country visiting everyone she wants and just generally getting to see the U.S, I would do it in an instant and that would make Letti and me, deliriously happy.

Hey, but where was I wrong? I didn't say no, I said no BUT. :)

[Wuducynn]

I'm sorry, what were you saying about your butt?

[cozener]

Yes, I'd like you to expand upon this topic as well, Letti. Perhaps photographs would be a more expeditious way to illustrate your original point?

[jayson]

Of course these pictures would make us happy, but they'd be free, thus proving money is not necessary for happiness. :P

[Darkthoughts]

:lol:

I voted no, because I don't entirely believe that happiness - as an absolute - is obtainable anyway.
I think it's an ideal rather than an achieveable state.

Mostly though, I'm donning the tie-dye and love beads with Brice, because my personal opinion is that if you're a miserable poor bastard you're more than likely to be a miserable rich bastard too.

It's like when people go travelling the world looking for happiness - you're going to get off the plane the same person you were when you boarded. You make your own happiness and take it with you wherever or whoever you are.

[CRinVA]

I voted Yes, but after thinking about it I should have voted Yes, but...!

Happiness comes from within, but money often reduces the stress that lives with many peoplel that do not have money. As evidenced from many athletes that "make it to the pros", you have no know how to handle the money to ensure the happiness. I'd noty be happy being filthy rich and able to buy whatever I wanted, go whereever I wanted, whenever I wanted. That leaves nothing for dreams!

But food and clothing and education and children and health care are important and if they are taken care of the rest kind of falls into place! :-)

[Jean]

It's like when people go travelling the world looking for happiness - you're going to get off the plane the same person you were when you boarded. You make your own happiness and take it with you wherever or whoever you are.
that depends very much on where you live. I can assure you I get off the plane very different person every time... much happier. Much.

Generally, I think it's mainly potential you're talking about - there are people unable to be happy whatever they have or see or do... and there are people able to be happy even if they have little or see shit or do nothing but hard work... but this ability needs means to become actuality. And money is that means in oh so many cases.

Let alone the fact that just absence of big trouble is often perceived as happinness... when disaster was looming, and then was diverted... and money is a BIG disaster diverter.

[Darkthoughts]

It's like when people go travelling the world looking for happiness - you're going to get off the plane the same person you were when you boarded. You make your own happiness and take it with you wherever or whoever you are.
that depends very much on where you live. I can assure you I get off the plane very different person every time... much happier. Much.
:D But I was specifically talking about people who go travelling because they are disatissfied with their lives, thinking that they will personally change just through being somewhere else.

I'm sure most people who travel as a holiday find temporary happiness and respite in it :couple:


Generally, I think it's mainly potential you're talking about - there are people unable to be happy whatever they have or see or do... and there are people able to be happy even if they have little or see shit or do nothing but hard work... but this ability needs means to become actuality. And money is that means in oh so many cases.
Yes sort of. But to answer both you and CRinVA here, what I'm trying to say is that even financial security wouldn't bring happiness in any permenant way.
Obviously you would find that your stress levels are reduced, enabling you to be a calmer, more pleasant person which generally has a knock on effect on the people around you. But you'd still experience boredom, unhappiness, anger etc in your daily life - because these aren't things money can "cure", they're states of mind that we have to overcome by psychological (for want of a more fitting word) means.

But, I don't know, perhaps I'm a bit nihilistic when it comes to the concept of happiness? Like I said, I don't believe it's an absolute - I don't even believe it's a constant.

[Matt]

I agree with you Lisa--I think happiness is all about perception and you just basically are if you want to be.

No amount of material possessions is really going to change a persons outlook on life, that comes from within.

[Letti]

Matthew... that's another thread. ;)

Who is the undecided one?

[theBeamisHome]

i said No, but... because i am a broke college student and i am generally deliriously happy... of course i think money would relieve some of the stresses that i have right now, but it wouldn't make me happy because i already am. i agree sort of with what Lisa said and Letti and Jayson. Nigel and i often talk about what we would do if we had lots and lots of money and they are things that would bring us satisfaction, but since we're already happy i wouldn't say that it's the money buying our happiness....

i guess it sort of depends on what kind of happiness you mean... like lifelong happiness, happiness with your life as it is, or just momentary "i have [insert material thing] now that i wanted" happiness... they're all legitimate happinesses i guess.

[Jean]

I agree with you Lisa--I think happiness is all about perception and you just basically are if you want to be.

No amount of material possessions is really going to change a persons outlook on life, that comes from within.
it wears off with time, if you have no money. I am usually happy with those little nothings - a ray of sunshine, a sound of music, a look at my teddy bears, a joke, a gryphon on the facade of a building, a cat walking in the yard - anything - but I am feeling more and more how tired it all gets with time, how old and strained, to the point of losing my mind. It is unhealthy and unnatural to keep this happy disposition when all bare necessities of life are either inaccessible, or constant hard struggle. I have managed it for decades, and now I feel my sanity slipping. I am so much afraid of the coming winter - no, not really afraid, I was afraid last winter, and now I am in panic.

I am sure in order to reply "no" to this question one must have at least basics of life provided for. Otherwise, if just doesn't make sense.

[Jon]

I think in order to answer properly, one would have to live in someting akin to poverty and, at another time, luxury.

As I have never had much money, I have to answer the question;

"How the blue fuck would I know?"

[Ves'Ka Gan]

No but...its more comfortable to cry in an Escalade than a Ford Pinto....:rofl:

Sorry, one of my favorite sayings.

Seriously, though, I don't believe money alone can make a person happy. I *do* believe that if I were independantly wealthy and didn't have to worry about bills, I would focus on my writing and be happier for doing what I love rather than working random jobs and playing "starving artist" while scrambling to get a freelance career going.

The money wouldn't, however, make me love my beau more, get me Robert Downey Jr as a personal pool boy or make my family feel loved and important.

Ok, so 5 yrs ago an ounce or two of coke would get Robert Downey Jr to do whatever I wanted--but money & coke don't buy happy well adjusted families.


ETA: Jon--I have lived both ways--enough money to buy most whatever I wanted (in reason) to being homeless on my friends' couch. When I had the money I was going through a divorce, battling a drinking problem and on the edge of an eating disorder....when I was living on my friends' couch I got back in touch with my creative self, got through a lot of my emotional issues and met the man I am curretly with and couldn't be happier with.

[cozener]

One thing I would enjoy about being rich is that I would feel more empowered to tell people to go fuck themselves whenever it was appropriate to do so. Also, when people do stuff like pulling their cars out in front of mine I could go ahead and hit them, get out, toss them a check for a grand or so, and tell them to drive more carefully. :)

[Ves'Ka Gan]

One thing I would enjoy about being rich is that I would feel more empowered to tell people to go fuck themselves whenever it was appropriate to do so. Also, when people do stuff like pulling their cars out in front of mine I could go ahead and hit them, get out, toss them a check for a grand or so, and tell them to drive more carefully. :)
Ahh yeah.."fuck you money".

I'd love that, too.

[Jon]

One thing I would enjoy about being rich is that I would feel more empowered to tell people to go fuck themselves whenever it was appropriate to do so.


I do that when I am dirt poor and even when it is inappropriate...that doesn't take money... just ask my boss. LOL

[cozener]

Damn...I want your job! But really, if I don't work for anyone that cuts out just about everyone I'd want to say fuck you to. :lol:

Actually my boss is a good guy. He has yet to evoke that "fuck you" feeling from me. Its the people that I have to deal with on the phone that do that. :pullhair:

[Wuducynn]

Its the people that I have to deal with on the phone that do that. :pullhair:

Hey!?!? What about me?? :angry:

[cozener]

Well yeah but I can say fuck you to you any time. There's no sport in it.

[Rjeso]

It can buy (or rent) comfort and niceties, which can certainly make you happy, at least temporarily, but personally, I derive happiness from things money can't buy.

Yeah, what he said.

Money lends security in many ways, which can lead to less stress and anxiety, etc. It can help you surround yourself with nice things and help you go places and do things, but personally, if I was doing those things alone, it wouldn't be any fun. I get my happiness from my loved ones. If I can't share all those cool things and events, what fun are they?

[Brice]

It can buy (or rent) comfort and niceties, which can certainly make you happy, at least temporarily, but personally, I derive happiness from things money can't buy.

Yeah, what he said.

Money lends security in many ways, which can lead to less stress and anxiety, etc. It can help you surround yourself with nice things and help you go places and do things, but personally, if I was doing those things alone, it wouldn't be any fun. I get my happiness from my loved ones. If I can't share all those cool things and events, what fun are they?

Well...you can always have fun teasing them about all the cool stuff you have and can do that they don't/can't. :lol:

[cozener]

Who says you can't share these things anyway? I mean, if you decide you want to go on a cruise or something there isn't any rule saying that you can't take them along. Lets say you and your buddies like to ride motorcycles. Whose to say you couldn't float them their own GSX1300Rs? If you like boating whose to say your friends can't come with you on your yacht?

Actually, one lotto fantasy I've always had is to create my own village...something secluded and, from the outside, resembling Hobbiton but with ecofriendly, and well connected houses (as I described above). My friends that wanted to could live in this place. We could petition for township and have our own police force (consisting only of my gunhappy friend Matt and his two German shepherds) I would, of course, be mayor...although I prefer the title of "alcalde"...not that I expect anyone to call me that. I'll just have the t-shirt. (But I'm sure Matt would insist on a badge so I'll have to get him a nice one...but nothing too ostentatious.)

[Ves'Ka Gan]

It can buy (or rent) comfort and niceties, which can certainly make you happy, at least temporarily, but personally, I derive happiness from things money can't buy.

Yeah, what he said.

Money lends security in many ways, which can lead to less stress and anxiety, etc. It can help you surround yourself with nice things and help you go places and do things, but personally, if I was doing those things alone, it wouldn't be any fun. I get my happiness from my loved ones. If I can't share all those cool things and events, what fun are they?

Why would you assume you couldn't share things & events with those you love?

If I had money to burn and nowhere to burn it, you'd better believe my loved ones & I would be doing all kinds of things together. For one, if I had a ridiculous amount of money I would find myself able to mantain a life on both the East and West Coast, ending my need to choose between these people I love and those people I love. Not to mention that I would more than likely invite people along when I traveled, etc. Hell, I don't go to the movies alone, I'm not going to Paris alone!