Can Money Buy Happiness?
Since time immemorial, this question has remained a fundamental concern in regards to money and wellness. The indistinct line between money and happiness has sparked heated controversies ever since money was discovered. Denying material wealth is a shared idea for several religious and spiritual movements. People who are inclined to make a fortune are regarded as spiritless and superficial. In a world characterized by capitalism, almost everyone must work hard to earn a living (Diener, p.264). Nonetheless, does wealth make them happy? I believe money can make a person comfortable, but it does not buy happiness.
Happiness has become an intricate subject, thanks to the self-help world. Every individual has his or her theories about happiness. The subject of happiness has become increasingly marred. The question of interest is; What makes a person happy? This is yet another broad-spectrum because each person has distinct things that make them happy (Easterlin, p.3). I think passion, gratitude, accomplishment, honesty, always having a choice, helping others, and positive thinking about oneself should make one happy. Gratitude and positive thinking make us see the greater things in life and learn to appreciate them. I believe there are greater things than money which include good health and good relations. Even if you were rich, you would not be happy if your life is full of regrets; that is, if you look back and see the wasted life, you lived full of immature choices. There is more to happiness than money.
Money alone is not enough to make one feel happy. From the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we learn the true motives why Jay Gatsby struggled so hard all his life to become wealthy and what his true goal in life was. Gatsby’s wealth gave him instants of cheerfulness, but the money alone was not sufficient. He desired love. Although money was the only way, he could get the girl he treasured, his blind love brought him dire consequences. His fixation to finding adequate money to win Daisy Fay Buchanan’s heart left him with no friends (164). After everything he did, he still was incapable of fulfilling his heart’s desire. His blind actions led him to his inevitable and untimely death (163).
On the other hand, Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby’s apple of the eye, is described as a materialistic person who values her wealth more than her love. Nick, her cousin, refers to her as the golden girl (42) for a couple of whys and wherefores, one being her avaricious nature. It is clear Daisy, despite her fortune, is not a happy person Nick describes her as a reckless person who smashes things up and then retreats behind her money (161)). From the book, it is clear that Daisy loves Gatsby but not sufficient to rip to pieces her entire life to be with him. She is a woman who adores the metaphorical protection of living with her husband Tom since it’s the state she is already in. it is crystal clear that Daisy is not happy in her marriage as well. It is as if she secretly longs for her long-lost lover, Gatsby, whom she would love to be with, not her exaggerated social status.
The book insists that money cannot buy us love, contentment, or even friends. We read that Gatsby’s funeral was attended by none of his party attendees except Nick.
At first, I was surprised and confused; then as he lays in his house and didn’t move or breath or speak, hour upon hour, it grew upon me that I was responsible because no one else was interested-interested, I mean, with that intense personal interest to which everyone has some vague right at the end (164).
Some people claim that wealth can at, some degree, make one live a happy life. They say that money makes them comfortable in life, which is enough to make one happy (Gardner et al.,64). However, a rich and powerful person cannot acquire a healthy physical state by being rich. Maybe money can buy friends, but they will be the corrupt type who love the money one has and not them. Even if a person pretends to love you for your money, the truth inside them will keep emerging periodically as humans are incapable of pretending for long, which is enough to hurt a person’s feelings. Consequently, it is bear certainty that money cannot entirely buy happiness.
It is clear from the illustrations that quantifiable objects are not enough to make anyone truly content. From the story of Gatsby and Daisy, we have seen that projecting our happiness towards a single desire could be fatal. Happiness should be forthcoming and straightforward. Gatsby put a lot of effort into finding what he loved most, and it became his undoing. Daisy, on the other hand, did not choose happiness in its simplicity but wanted it to be toppled up by wealth and riches. From their lives, we can conclude that wealth should not be anyone’s object of happiness; instead we should identify that which makes us happy and embrace it for what it is.
Bibliography
Easterlin, Richard A. “Does money buy happiness?” The public interest 30 (1973): 3.
Gardner, Jonathan, and Andrew Oswald. “Does money buy happiness? A longitudinal study using data on windfalls.” Manuscript submitted for publication (2001).
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Broadview Press, 2007.
Diener, Ed, Jeff Horwitz, and Robert A. Emmons. “Happiness of the very wealthy.” Social indicators research 16.3 (1985): 263-274.