Can Money buy Happiness?

The answer is 'Yes' and also 'No'. I have an uncle who says "Money isn't happiness but without money you cannot be happy"

Now for all you people out there who have nothing to do but argue, I'm positive my uncle meant this in a general way. I'm sure there are many people out there who don't have much money but are perfectly happy.

Anyway, money can buy happiness but it also cannot. So when can it and when does it not?

Well, money can buy you happiness provided that you already have a functioning family structure, healthy social interactions, good health, belief system (religion or other morals) and things like that.

It cannot buy you happiness when you have lots of money but have no health, time or people to spend it with. Not on, with. The difference is subtle but its there.

So its not like this:
'X' or Money = happiness, where 'X' is any one thing or combination of health, social, etc.

Its like this:
'X' + Money = happiness

Even when your conditions are sufficient for money to be able to buy you happiness, buying 'things' won't really make you happy. It does by a small margin but buying things for yourself just never feels as good as you think it would, does it?

Money can truly buy you happiness when its used to buy experiences (which in turn become memories) alone or with others like a vacation to a new place, a new hobby or novel activities like skydiving, visiting museums, paintball or whatever. Something that you'd appreciate having done, later down the road.

However buying things for others and making them happy will probably make you happy as well. Maybe. It seems that way to me at the very least. When its between people, its no longer about the 'things' themselves but the act of giving and its associated feelings such as appreciation and thoughtfulness which is good for happiness (under the assumption actual effort was made to select a thing suitable for a given person and not just random throwaway gifts). **

** The rest of the post is pretty generalisable to all but the last paragraph is just how I feel about it.

P.S. I may or may not be completely broke at this time, hehe.

break the Cycle

Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the purchase of goods and services in ever-greater amounts. In the 21st century this is especially true when lessons like "only look out for #1" are being taught. People consume, consume and consume while rarely or not giving back at all.

An example is in the case of water. We need fresh water, we consume ever larger amounts of it. Yet we don't give back to the Earth because many people pollute water sources. There's only 1 habitable planet, so resources are limited. The human race is consuming too fast and replenishing too little.

Consumerism links in with materialism where beginning in the 1990s the main reason for attending university is to make big money and not to become an expert in a certain field or to help people in difficulty. Materialism shifts away from community, spirituality and integrity and leads to competition and disconnection.

Social status is now tied to your material belongings rather than your actual self worth. Its a vicious cycle. The poor try to imitate the rich while the rich try to imitate celebrities and so on. Sometimes we buy things we don't need even use solely to emulate people we regard as having "higher social status".

Buying material things is fine, we all need our certain comforts. But at the point where you have to buy something in order to fit in, now there's your problem. Our consumerism also needs to stay manageable and not go beyond what is environmentally-sustainable.