Money Does (Not) Bring Happiness. You probably would be thinking this is a cliché argument that has been debated thousands of times. Practically, a simple Google search of ‘does money bring happiness?’ would pop out thousands of contradicting opinions which in the end, gets boring and no concluding line would be drawn.
But here, I am bringing a different perspective to the table before you, different from numerous arguments folks have argued on social networks. And this is it: money does bring happiness, but money doesn’t buy happiness.
As humans, we always tend to forget that some issues cannot go beyond us being humans. No matter how effective a robot works, there are some natural thinking processes, some natural gesturing abilities that can never be attributed to it, vis-à-vis the picture of our mental wellness.
We humans are influenced beyond environmental existences. Innately, some things shape us. The mode of what makes us happy or sad depends on what we hoard in our hearts. The littlest thing to someone is the biggest thing another person holds to heart. Love that saves some out of the engulfment of depression cages some into it. While being poor piques some deep, sad thoughts; being rich does not stop you from being sad.
As I observed, when this argument spins up, the idea that money brings or buys happiness seems to always have the capacity to raise the bar. Why? Because our brains have been synched to believing that what makes rich people display smiles on their faces is their large net worth. It could be numerously mentioned, the numbers of hugely rich people that have committed suicide. Why would they commit suicide if money puts smile on their faces? The bottom line here is: as we progress in making money and getting richer, the circle of our demands shifts.
When a person is poor, the person would always think not having money prevents him from getting access to good healthcare, to buying beautiful materials and prevents them from smiling as everyone does. A rich person also builds different aspirations that they think having this excessive money is preventing them from getting.
German billionaire, Adolf Merckle, committed suicide in 2019 because, in a family statement, “the desperate situation of his companies caused by the financial crisis, the uncertainties of the last few weeks and his powerlessness to act, have broken the passionate family entrepreneur” so “he took his own life”.
Two points here make this potent enough; the uncertainties of the last few weeks and his powerlessness to act. Just as the saying goes, ‘enlightenment is a burden’, in a situation whereby knowing so much makes you think you haven’t read enough and not knowing at all fades your relevance.
Here is the resolution: the difference between money bringing happiness and not buying happiness is that money changes your perspective towards the things that you admired when you’re not rich but it cannot save you from being human, because as humans, every day or some days, something bothers us.
Strive so hard to get money but don’t assume you won’t feel sad or would be eternally happy because of the money. The only change it would make is that money would shift your demands and the things that make you sad when you’re not financially okay enough would transform.
The absolute truth is that there’s no luxury in being poor. So, don’t be dissuaded not to make and save money to live comfortably and be happy but don’t also ever think you would buy happiness with your money because you can’t.
Ahmad Adedimeji Amobi
