Money ≠ Happiness!

Posted by ECOKID on Jul 16th, 2009 | no comments home title

Dear Moolahblog,

I read the weirdest article yesterday that expressed how money is the root of happiness! While reading it, I actually found that the author, Cody Scholberg, really meant that money, itself, is a tool that can help brings happiness. In no way would I agree that happiness itself is directly linked to money as in “money makes you happy.” This would imply by direct translation that money itself makes you happy. That is simply not true. The odd thing is, I think if Cody read this article he would agree to with me and point out that his statement only makes sense because the above stated is true.

However, to say that money is a tool and that money at the same time is directly linked to happiness would completely be a contradicting statement. Money it self does not equal money, although money can and may very well lead to it.

The happiness that is brought by receiving your check every pay period is not truly happiness. It is more like an excitement that comes about due to the idea that it may temporarily bring relief, not complete happiness. Granted, I must agree with Cody when he says that it can bring a smile and even get you heart pumpin’ a bit faster. Those things seem more like symptoms of excitement rather then genuine happiness.

He mentions half way through his article that “money alone does not make you happy”, and I completely agree! So, with that said, money (stand alone), cannot bring you happiness. I’m not sure if I’m seeing this correctly but did he just mention, with the above statement, that money does not bring about happiness? You see I think the way we are referring to happiness may be where I find the flaw. Perhaps understand the difference between levels in happiness might better help us understand how money may directly bring happiness by first agreeing to what kind of happiness you are referring to.

In any case, Cody seems to have sparkled a bit of confusion in my head about what he truly meant to say in his article. His article pointed a few things out but the actual argument structure might have been a bit of target with the direct message. I’m not sure I fully believe that money makes you happy after having read it.

Money, as far as I’m concerned, Does Not Make You Happy nor can it be said that Money is the root of happiness, even though an argument can be made in favor of it being a tool that leads to happiness. That’s my spiel!