Is money required to stay happy?

[amna.]

Is it true that money = happiness? I have been hearing how money buys everything, including love. How do you explain this? What do you think of it?

Does being rich make you happy?

[abubaker]

i have known some filthy reach people and some of them were downright miserable

[Levanaye Zalmaye]

No money = no internets = no PF = unhappy.
No money = no AC = hot = unhappy.
No money = no expensive diet programs = fat wife = unhappy.
No money = no good schools for kids = dumb kids = unhappy.

And the list goes on...
Of course, money isn't the only factor leading to happiness BUT at the same time, it's true that most have-nots are unhappy people. Where I come from, the common man on the street just needs an opportunity to complain about his poverty and inflation....

Most people living in the West have no idea what poverty really is....

[Son of Mountains]

I dont think so
More money, more tensions, more diseases
Less money, less tensions, less diseases

[AnGaaR]

Money is cure for many diseases but it has dangerous side effects

[Admin Khan]

No money = no internets = no PF = unhappy.
No money = no AC = hot = unhappy.
No money = no expensive diet programs = fat wife = unhappy.
No money = no good schools for kids = dumb kids = unhappy.

And the list goes on...
Of course, money isn't the only factor leading to happiness BUT at the same time, it's true that most have-nots are unhappy people. Where I come from, the common man on the street just needs an opportunity to complain about his poverty and inflation....

Most people living in the West have no idea what poverty really is....

As much as I agree, I must say money does not equal happiness.

How do you explain synthetic happiness?

[Levanaye Zalmaye]

I dont think so
More money, more tensions, more diseases
Less money, less tensions, less diseases

Hmmm I think the opposite is true. No money, infinitely more tension. Who's gonna feed the kids? Every second day, some guy commits suicide thinking about that.

Diseases? A man has a heart-attack. The doctors offer to perform an angioplasty on him which costs Rs. 250,000. The guy's fixed up and all good to go. However, if a power man has a heart-attack, they send him back home with a sick heart. Similarly, if a rich man's kid gets sick, he goes to the top doctors of the country but when a poor man's child is sick, he has to go to clinics where average doctors are known to make mistakes...

SoM, you know how bad income disparity is here. A man drivers a Land Cruiser (17 million rupees with import duty) and he pays his cook Rs. 7,000 per month. His cook would have to work for 208 years to be worth that one car. How do you think that makes him feel?

As much as I agree, I must say money does not equal happiness.

How do you explain synthetic happiness?

Hmm I actually agree that money does not equal happiness but it plays a huge role in it. For example, a man can never be happy if his child does no matter how rich (or poor) he is.

Synthetic happiness works in the West because unless you're not in the poorest 1% (homeless I'd say), you'd have access to healthcare, schooling, colleges, electricity, transport, gas, etc, etc. Who wouldn't become complacent with those things? Over here, if you're part of the poorest 30%, electricity, gas, healthcare, etc would be far-off luxuries. That sort of grinding poverty leads to misery and I don't think anyone can get used to it...

[IamDZJ]

it's not required but it does help.

[AnGaaR]

^Levaneya.. You are right in ur own way.. money is good for many things but still its bad in other ways
someone wil kill u for ur own money
someone wil harm u
kidnap u or ur kid
more tax,more zakat,more khairat,more careful about poor ppl,more questions in the day of judgement and so on.
And the worse is that u wil be laying on bed having millions of dollars but ur money wont be able to save ur life caz u wil be in last stages..

Rich or poor, both will go to same place..

Be rich by heart and iman not money

[AfghanSoulja]

It is necessary, those who think otherwise probably have never been without it so they wouldnt know what life can be like without it.

Its definitely not all there is to life, but if its not there it does seem like there's nothing much to life

[IamDZJ]

No money = no internets = no PF = unhappy.
No money = no AC = hot = unhappy.
No money = no expensive diet programs = fat wife = unhappy.
No money = no good schools for kids = dumb kids = unhappy.

And the list goes on...
Of course, money isn't the only factor leading to happiness BUT at the same time, it's true that most have-nots are unhappy people. Where I come from, the common man on the street just needs an opportunity to complain about his poverty and inflation....

Most people living in the West have no idea what poverty really is....

you are describing resources. not money.

[Admin Khan]

Hmmm I think the opposite is true. No money, infinitely more tension. Who's gonna feed the kids? Every second day, some guy commits suicide thinking about that.

Diseases? A man has a heart-attack. The doctors offer to perform an angioplasty on him which costs Rs. 250,000. The guy's fixed up and all good to go. However, if a power man has a heart-attack, they send him back home with a sick heart. Similarly, if a rich man's kid gets sick, he goes to the top doctors of the country but when a poor man's child is sick, he has to go to clinics where average doctors are known to make mistakes...

SoM, you know how bad income disparity is here. A man drivers a Land Cruiser (17 million rupees with import duty) and he pays his cook Rs. 7,000 per month. His cook would have to work for 208 years to be worth that one car. How do you think that makes him feel?



Hmm I actually agree that money does not equal happiness but it plays a huge role in it. For example, a man can never be happy if his child does no matter how rich (or poor) he is.

Synthetic happiness works in the West because unless you're not in the poorest 1% (homeless I'd say), you'd have access to healthcare, schooling, colleges, electricity, transport, gas, etc, etc. Who wouldn't become complacent with those things? Over here, if you're part of the poorest 30%, electricity, gas, healthcare, etc would be far-off luxuries. That sort of grinding poverty leads to misery and I don't think anyone can get used to it...

Agreed,

But having a lot of money also has negative effects. I know several rich people who have psychological and mental disorders. Many Afghans are now mentally sick since they became rich with the "taryaak" business. In fact, I know this one Afghan who thinks everyone is out there to get him. He dresses like a bum, cause he thinks people will rob him. He unfortunately lives a miserable life and I can tell you he is very unhappy, yet he is probably one of the richest people you could think of.

[Dukhtar-e-Kabul]

Money does not equal happiness. It plays a major role in happiness though.

[Roshina]

It depends partially on your definition of happiness and partially on how you use/spend that money. I personally feel happier spending money for humanitarian causes, though I understand that's not the case with everyone and we have no right to tell others how to spend their wealth. But if you're one of those people who attains immense satisfaction from spending money in a good cause, be it to keep your family healthy, protected, and well-educated, or just to buy your mother/father gifts every now and then, then I can imagine you would be happy having a lot of money.

But still, it also depends on how happiness is defined.

[Roshina]

I'm always reminded of this poem below when talks on money and happiness arise:

"Richard Cory"

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

- Edwin Arlington Robinson