Board 8 > C/D Money = Happiness

(+) Yeah! (+)

You've heard this common saying haven't you? What do you think about it?
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Money doesnt equal happiness, but its fairly essential
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Without money, you can't afford the significant other that gives you essential economic support. Without money, you can't afford to eat well enough to satisfy your soul. Without money, you can't afford meaningful hobbies or sanity-giving activities.

Rich people ARE happy. If they don't think they're happy, it's because they haven't experienced any misery and don't know what unhappiness actually is. They need to wake the fuck up to what the less fortunate are going through. Only then can they realize how good they have it. I've met homeless people who are happy with the life they're living and well-off people who aren't. I respect the former way more than the latter.

So, in the end, happiness is a mental thing. Having just a little money, though, can make a difference in your mental state - if you can keep busy, you're not wallowing in pity. If you're rich and aren't happy with life, why not experience some adversity and live in the back of a van for a month or two to give yourself some perspective?
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BlueCrystalTear posted...

Without money, you can't afford the significant other that gives you essential economic support. Without money, you can't afford to eat well enough to satisfy your soul. Without money, you can't afford meaningful hobbies or sanity-giving activities.

Rich people ARE happy. If they don't think they're happy, it's because they haven't experienced any misery and don't know what unhappiness actually is. They need to wake the fuck up to what the less fortunate are going through. Only then can they realize how good they have it. I've met homeless people who are happy with the life they're living and well-off people who aren't. I respect the former way more than the latter.

So, in the end, happiness is a mental thing. Having just a little money, though, can make a difference in your mental state - if you can keep busy, you're not wallowing in pity. If you're rich and aren't happy with life, why not experience some adversity and live in the back of a van for a month or two to give yourself some perspective?

poor person alert
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I'm one who doesn't think that rich people are any happier than your average financially secure person. But you do need some level of financial security.
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BlueCrystalTear posted...

So, in the end, happiness is a mental thing

Damn that's deep bro
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If you don't know how to parlay money DIRECTLY into happiness then you're bad at alife
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Money can't buy happiness, but it's a hell of a down payment.

Quote not mine.
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Money cant buy happiness but it makes it a lot easier.

i normally vote yes (in that money can bring happiness), but making it an exact == forces me to vote no

rich people can still fear a future where they won't be rich anymore

all the money in the world can't bring your dead dad or kid back, either
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Dantezoid posted...

BlueCrystalTear posted...

Without money, you can't afford the significant other that gives you essential economic support. Without money, you can't afford to eat well enough to satisfy your soul. Without money, you can't afford meaningful hobbies or sanity-giving activities.

Rich people ARE happy. If they don't think they're happy, it's because they haven't experienced any misery and don't know what unhappiness actually is. They need to wake the fuck up to what the less fortunate are going through. Only then can they realize how good they have it. I've met homeless people who are happy with the life they're living and well-off people who aren't. I respect the former way more than the latter.

So, in the end, happiness is a mental thing. Having just a little money, though, can make a difference in your mental state - if you can keep busy, you're not wallowing in pity. If you're rich and aren't happy with life, why not experience some adversity and live in the back of a van for a month or two to give yourself some perspective?

poor person alert

the last line is actually indicative of a rich person alert. Heck more closely the whole thing is.
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Yes but there are huge diminishing returns

It's more like making a certain amount is a pre-requisite to be happy but once you clear that bar more helps increasingly less as you clear the bar by more and more.
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I'd rather be miserable in a porsche than in a buick
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Lopen posted...

Yes but there are huge diminishing returns

It's more like making a certain amount is a pre-requisite to be happy but once you clear that bar more helps increasingly less as you clear the bar by more and more.

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ExThaNemesis posted...

I'd rather be miserable in a porsche than in a buick

Jumping off your 75th floor highrise is also way better than hanging yourself in some shitty apartment.
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Lopen posted...

It's more like making a certain amount is a pre-requisite to be happy but once you clear that bar more helps increasingly less as you clear the bar by more and more.

This sounds the closest to me. I feel like once you can afford to comfortably live in a dwelling that's to your standards and raise a family without stressing every paycheck, you've basically won life. Everything beyond that is just frosting, and there's a lot that can happen at those higher levels that can easily undermine the simple happiness you could have had before.
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If there's diminishing returns there are still returns so you're still saying money = happiness. It's not linear but it's still directly correlated.
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foolm0r0n posted...

If there's diminishing returns there are still returns so you're still saying money = happiness. It's not linear but it's still directly correlated.

what if theres a plateau
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yeah money is happiness
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I prefer necessary, but not sufficient.

Studying for the LSAT has changed me
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EmoCombeeDancin posted...

what if theres a plateau

That's different, but is there?
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SantaRPidgey posted...

Money doesnt equal happiness, but its fairly essential

Basically what I came in to say: "D, but it helps a lot"
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Money doesn't buy happiness, but it does buy the things that help.
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foolm0r0n posted...

EmoCombeeDancin posted...

what if theres a plateau

That's different, but is there?

Hypotheticallly if youre in a place where you have a trillion dollars but you want another 10 trillon to make you happier I would liken money to more of a dopamine high than a device of pure joy.
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Well I voted yes for the record. I think my feeling on it is closer to yes than no.
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foolm0r0n posted...

EmoCombeeDancin posted...

what if theres a plateau

That's different, but is there?

research suggests yes
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If that plateau doesn't include the ability to fund research into granting me eternal youth then it's not much of a plateau imooo
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As someone whos been poor or lower middle class his whole life

yes

yes it does and Fuck you with a capital F if you say other wise
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there are people with money who are not happy, so the obvious answer is no

they can't be exactly equal
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bumpers
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CherryCokes posted...

research suggests yes

Like I said, lots of people don't know how to use money to buy happiness directly. That's their problem but it doesn't really change the happiness potential of money.
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metaIslug posted...

Happiness = peace of mind

No amount of money can bring peace of mind to some people. I say that because that's how I am. I constantly think about the morality of things, what's good what's bad. Surprise surprise there are alot of bad things, and alot of just "neither one" things that you can't do anything about. That's a cause of anxiety for me. I'm also kinda poor, but that doesn't have anything to do with it

idk man I think not having to worry about whether or not I'll be able to make rent each month would bring me some peace of mind

being able to afford to go to the doctor for medical problems would bring peace of mind
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I forget where I read it, but I read that money does equate to happiness up to a certain level. It of course varies by where you are, but I believe for the US it's about $75k (aside from places known to be expensive - NYC, LA, SF, Honolulu, etc., where that's higher). If you make that, you're not that much happier with additional money and I believe it plateaus somewhere.

That's not to say that you can't be happy with earning less money. I don't make $75k, but definitely don't earn minimum wage either (I earn over twice the minimum wage). Yet, I wouldn't call myself happier than my friends that make or make close to minimum wage. In fact, those friends are usually happier than I am. I'm jealous of that, to be perfectly honest, because I am the type of person that has suffered serious depression over money or the type of jobs I'd be able to work. Work and money have controlled me for over a decade now and this board has even told me that I let those things impact my happiness too much.

So what am I trying to say? It depends on the person and how much they value financial security, but for most people, money does buy happiness up to the point where it doesn't.
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