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 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.
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).
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 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
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research that money contributes happiness to a point (I think it's $75k household income per year, but that's likely outdated now).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.
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.
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.
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.
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've got 99 problems and at least 98 of them can be solved with a fair wage and eating the rich
That's the point. There is a limit. If you below, you're not happy but you can't extrapolate that too much
The bankers are lying to everyone, money does buy happiness.
The actual fact is that Money buys happiness but in diminishing returns 10k extra a year makes a lot more difference to a minimum wage worker than it does to a 6 figure software developer
It buys happiness and I full on want money so financial security covers my ass. Money brings SECURITY and I need SECURITY TO BE HAPPY. End of.
I have an idea for a story in which a former businessman, now homeless, has a number of interpersonal conflicts with people who lend him money, dislike him, give him favors to get by, etc. There's a whole first part based on this strife and drama. Then, a freak situation results in him instantly becoming the head of a nationwide corporation. Every single conflict that existed in the first part is solved in about 3 paragraphs through a quick set of checks he writes.
There's a lot of general morals in that story, including "Wealth is not necessarily as 'earned' as one would think", but also that a comfortable amount of money really does ease almost all interpersonal relationships.
Money doesn't buy happiness, but at least in this particular socioeconomic system, it buys essential resources for survival, which allows you to fulfill the lower tiers of Maslow's Pyramid and therefore allows you to pursue the things that actually grant you happiness. You can indeed have money and still not be happy, but at the same time, the vast majority of people who do not have enough money are not happy.
I knew a person that made a lot of money. And I mean a lot of money.
Left home at six in the morning, 5 days of the week, returned home after nine in the evening. Tons of benefits. Company car. Monthly and travel expenses. Cellphone. Computer. Tools and equipment. Uniform and safety gear for required context.
Divorced three times. Wasn't around to be a parent for 3 children. Lost family and friends to favor work and career. One day, woke up old, alone and miserable but on any way used to measure it, very rich.
Spent the last decade of life spending money in an atempt to fill the void of not having a person of significance in the world.
Money didn't bought or even rented happiness. It bought cars, cruises, hookers and enough alcohol to fill an olympic swimming pool. But happiness? Out of stock.
Excessive amounts of money doesn't by happiness.
Kind of like how money is not the root of all evil. The love of money is root of all evil. Or how power doesn't really corrupt good people, but it certainly attracts corrupt people and allows terrible people to act on their terrible ideas.
Well I've just got a chinchilla and those guys are cute little fuckers. So yeah I'm just bought some happiness.
Although possibly if I had spent time slightly more money tgey would have a less squeaky wheel, so perhaps what money has really bought sleepless nights.
It irks me when people categorically state money buys happiness as a rebuttal to the old cliche; because it doesn't, and insisting it does just seems like contrarianism.
Money certainly does solve many problems that cause misery, and removing misery is a essential step on the path to happiness. Isn't that a noble enough message?
There are loads of people with plenty of money who are not actually happy. So simply saying "money can buy happiness" also minimizes the real problems of real people.
My VA rating is the third best thing to ever happen to me. I was doing ok before I got it, now I am doing good. All my bills are always paid, I have money to spend and I'm saving a whole bunch. Get that bag
Money buying happiness is capitalist propaganda to keep you and me too busy to really find happiness
My parents lost most of their life savings to a scam about 10 years ago. I've been helping us get by for the past 5 years now. Recently due to interest rates climbing higher and higher, the only way the bank would allow them to renew their mortgage is if I was signed onto it. With the amount we have to pay monthly now, it's like my salary was cut to worse levels than when I started. I'll have $100 extra a month after the mortage and other cost of living expenses are paid. We'll be cutting it close.
It's extremely frustrating because my salary certainly is not making up for the increased cost of living. It feels like both my job, and the bank have me by the balls. Truly feeling like a wage slave
Ahhhh im glad we finally got down to the crux.
People dont want the end of capitalism, they just want money so they can buy shit they dont need because reasons 1, 2 and 3. Definitely, it isnt poor spending habits for sure you just need a little more to 'get by'. Im sure I wont get downvoted for this take
"I've worked hard all my life
Money slips through my hands
My face in the mirror tells me
It's no surprise that I am
Pushing the stone up the hill of failure"
-- Failure by Swans
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.nr0.htm
Median weekly earnings of full-time workers were $1,118 in the third quarter of 2023. That means half of all people make above this and half make below.
Most people's problems would NOT be solved if $1,100 went up to say, $1,300
Most of their current problems would be solved but surely they'd make up or create new ones. Otherwise, we'd have just quit after farming probably.
