How Can Money Buy us Happiness? By Ellen

There is no doubt that everyone wants to be happy. It is sought for by every ethnicity and religion. Happiness and the path towards it is a ceaseless topic, and definitely an important one. Yet in contempt of how much we want to be happy, it is not a topic brought up often enough, and one that many of us have stopped to truly contemplate. In the twenty first century today, our lives are so fast paced that we don’t have the time to slow down and allow happiness into our lives, even if that means taking a second to get off our phones and live in the moment. But how can we reach something that we don’t completely understand? Happiness is a difficult and messy concept to explain. There are countless ideas theorised to try pinpoint exactly what it is, such as by the philosopher Aristotle who said “Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” And for us particularly, we are lucky to be so privileged - being part of the world's top 1% financially. Yet many argue that despite being free of our worries financially, it doesn’t necessarily mean we are happy. But can we be? Against popular belief, happiness can be bought; it just depends on what you’re spending it on.

A large misconception between the “illusion of happiness” is that “Once I have everything I want, I will be happy,” and “Once I am happy, I will have everything.” Now some argue that happiness is a choice, that we are as happy as we want to be. But others say it is more a light at the end of the tunnel scenario, or something we can learn and practice. There are dozens of beliefs, and all of them are correct, as it is up to the individual to decide what happiness is to you. And your thoughts towards the concept and how to obtain it are all influenced and shaped by your religion, how you were raised, your country, and more. Though a figure that stands strongly is the “Maslow hierarchy of needs,” a theory in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow in which he categorised the order of most to least basic of a need; Physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualisation. Yet the most basic need, which is physiological, require money. While this may be true, it is only the extreme basis of an income, meaning for us being privileged it is much easier to reach the top.

Once we are financially stable and can afford to cover our basic needs, can money really make us happier? Yes, in fact by a survey on 1,000 americans in 2010, it concluded that earning upwards to $75,000 leads to a correlation of increasing happiness, although anything above an income of $75,000 won’t have an affect (the guardian). This concept is also called the “Easterlin Paradox,” which was first used as an explanation as to why despite rising incomes during the 1970s - Americans were not getting happier. To put this in an understandable context, for example, if you earned an $100 income and it was doubled - your life would change drastically. If you earned an $1mil income and got a $10,000 raise, it would be nothing. “We buy things to make us happy, and we succeed. But only for a while. New things are exciting to us at first, but then we adapt to them.” said Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University. This shows us the flaw between money and happiness, expressed as the term “Hedonic adaptation” - which means getting used to niceties. So although money makes us happier, we must understand the limit.

In addition to this, Hedonic adaption shows us that the happiness that comes from spending money to buy products or belongings, such as going shopping, will wear off as we become used to the nicety and possibly take it for granted. “Money can buy us happiness - but most people aren’t spending their money of things that actually translate into happiness,” (quora). But if spending our money on niceties doesn’t make us happy, what does? In fact, it is the people who spend money on experiences and those who give money away generously who are shown to have increased happiness (Health.USnews). Instead, rather than buying expensive furniture or the newest iPhone, it is more fulfilling to create experiences such as watching a concert, learning a new skills, sports or traveling.

Similarly, the generosity aspect is covered by a concept we call “pro-social spending.” For example, in an experiment done by “Greatergood.eu,” passer byes were given envelopes with $5 or $20 dollar bills and were told to leave their phone number. Each envelope accompanied by a note that told them to either; Spend this money today on a gift for yourself or any of your expenses, or it told them to do the same but spend it on someone else or donate it to a charity. By the end of the day, each person was called up and asked about how happy they were feelings and how they spent the money. This evidence points to show that everyone who engaged in “prosocial spending” was increasingly happier than those who spent it on themselves - granting that there were no differences at the beginning of the day. Furthermore, the amount of money found in the envelope had no impact whatsoever, it only came down to how they spend it. So for any of us, this could be expanded into the real world in scenarios of being more generous; spending more time on choosing presents, donating to charity or sparing some change to the homeless.

In conclusion, if you spend your money on experiences that open you to creating valuable memories, learn something new, it connects you with others or benefits others in your community through pro-social spending; money will definitely make you happier. Also, if this money is keeping you from being poor in the sense of being unhealthy, hungry or unsafe (refer to the physiological aspect in Maslow's hierarchy of needs), then money will positively impact your life.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Williams, Geoff. "Can Money Buy us Happiness?"US News. U.S.News & World Report, n.d. Web. 12 June 2016.
"Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness." Greatergood. N.p., n.d. Web.
Hamburgh, Rin. "Can Money Buy Happiness?" The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 07 Jan. 2016. Web. 12 June 2016.
"Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 12 June 2016
"Can Money Really Buy Happiness? If Yes, Then How and If Not, Then What Can Bring Happiness?" - Quora. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2016.
Blackman, Andrew. "Can Money Buy Happiness? Here's What Science Has to Say." WSJ. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2016.