A Controversial Take On "Does Money Buy Happiness?" | George Mack 

Let’s lower the bar then: Define Happiness as Basic Needs: Food, Shelter, Water, Clothes. Any decent quality of these items costs money.

I always say, " If money isn't buying you happiness you're shopping in the wrong place."

He actually found a way to add nothing new to the conversation but managed to complicate it even more

It seems like you're trying to articulate that while money might not be able to directly buy happiness it can solve some sources of misery.

Money doesn’t buy happiness But being broke buys stress and anxiety

I have a Behavioural Science (Psychology) degree & I remember several studies investigated this. What was discovered was that it depends on your current financial situation & operates on a diminished returns basis; plus it's also dependant on your "relative wealth" in comparison to your social circles. So money can indeed "buy happiness" if it elevates you out of poverty (so now you can buy your own home & afford quality healthcare, for instance) but less so if it turns you from a multi-millionaire into a billionaire. While even millionaires can be unhappy when their social circle have significantly more wealth than they do.

He doesn't understand the real world, bless him

Bro had no idea what happiness is

Money doesn't buy happiness, money solves problems. Which is pretty much the same thing.

I don't know if you can BUY happiness, but you can damn sure rent it.

Happiness is a feeling, people can feel differently about the same exact thing. A guy can be over the moon buying a new car, and then saw his neighbor get a nicer car and now he's unhappy. Then the next day, his neighbor's car model had issues and had to get sent back to the factory. That makes the guy feel that he's got an eye for quality, and now he's happy about his purchase again. His purchase didn't change, but his happiness did. So the change in his happiness had nothing to do with the purchase at all. Money and happiness does not have a direct cause and effect relationship.

Money buys freedom and freedom buys you happiness.

I heard this entire interview & i felt like it was a beautiful masterclass on: How to say nothing and everything at the same time in different words

I feel like I am qualified to answer this question because I was on both sides. I was so poor I ate barely half a soup a day for months. And it was the cheapest instant soup. I used to cry while eating it knowing I would still be hungry. Now I can easily afford to hire a private chef if I wanted to. After a lot of ups and downs and learning about money and living with and without it ,this is what I realized : 1. Lack of money is a misery to its core. Mentally and physically it destroys you. 2. Once you have enough money for basic needs like food, a place to live etc.. AND some saved money so you dont feel like a flat tire will ruin your life ; at that point money will not make you any happier. From that point on anything you buy will give you a dopamine hit with deminishing returns. 3. I "feel" the same in my giant house with an internal pool and sauna the same way when I lived in my small flat. 4. Most of your time isnt spent with your money or things you bought with it , most of your time you spend in your head. 5. Most of happines, or certainly the greatest form of happines comes from overcomming hardship. Im happy I made myself , not that I made money. 6. People want money to prove something to others and the greates irony of them all is , once you do make money, in most cases, you are so proud of yourself you dont even have a need to impress others anymore. 7. Not having money and picking yourself up and achieving something is the greatest expierence a human being can have. Being proud of yourself is true happines. Good luck, I hope you all make it.

Happiness is more likely to acquire money than money is to buy happiness.

My family reminded me of my answer to this question back in the 70s. They reminded me that I said. " Money cannot buy you happiness, but it allows you to be miserable in a bit more comfort".

I think a lot of people need to redefine what makes them happy.

The question itself is supposed to allow the reader/listener to make thier own conclusion. It's simplicity is the point. At face value, the pursuit of money alone, ie Greed, will not grant happiness. Happiness is defined by the individual so if the person wants to have many friends, good. No amount of money or possessions will grant happiness to the individual in that case but it will solve other problems that person has. The question leaves that to interpretation

The better way to say it would be “money CAN buy happiness” it just isn’t a guarantee. But having enough money guarantees peace of mind, food and shelter, and any basic necessities you might have.

Incorrect take. The having "enough" money buys happiness or "not lacking" in money buys happiness.

Health and Wealth will dramatically increase your chances of a happy life. It’s really just that simple.

Money buys happiness in diminishing returns, after 200k you will be no more happy that 2 mil

noise cancelling earphones are better than a penthouse beside diddy

Stats show that happiness and income scale linearly upto the 100k salary mark, after that its diminishing returns.

I never buy real estate before living in and examining the area, the people the demographics, the market trends, past, current, and future projections. Bnnker & Tradesman is a great resource.

Having money in the bank, on its own doesn’t buy happiness or even expenditure of it doesn’t. But it promotes happiness. Not having financial stress promotes happiness and even promotes self development and ability to interact with others on a personal level. Being able to take career changes, risks and opportunities which are unavailable to you without an enough finances behind you. Being able to pursue and discover passions by using that money wisely. Money doesn’t make you happy alone, but not having enough money will make it a lot harder to be happy. Facts.

Fair point.

a really simple solution to this question is to just reverse it, if you asked "does no money cause misery?" then the answer would be a unanimous yes. there are basic things we need in order to live a happy life, and many of those require money, so it's very difficult to be happy without money just like if you had a debilitating illness, a disability, no friends or no passions. i have a nasty injury that gutted my sports career and has made me live in constant pain and weakness, im 22 but i don't know if i'll ever be pain free or able to exercise and compete again which i used to love, so if an able bodied person told me that being physically fit wasn't necessary to be happy i'd tell them they're talking a load of sh*t. my injury also led me down a bad path so now i also don't have any friends or passions, and my career is going terribly so i'm worried about money, so not having my health has also ruined all these other aspects of my life. having no money does the exact same thing, so when wealthy people preach about money being useless they really have no idea what they're talking about

Happiness is the little things in life. A beautiful sunrise or sunset cost nothing. A smile on a face of a person you know or don't know. Laughter music love yes you can buy it all even friends but the second you put a price on the basics its all false.

The most intuitive way to understand this is by imagining money as Lego bricks. If you have a lot of Lego bricks you can technically build a lot of cools stuff, but you still need to be creative to build it. If you are very creative you can probably build cool stuff even with a few Lego bricks. But even the most creative person can not build you something if they have no lego bricks at all. Just like the least creative person will never build great stuff no matter how much Lego bricks they have.

Most of life’s unhappiness is caused by not having enough money.

Cool and insightful way of looking at it.

Yeah, I went to the store and purchased "Happiness" off the shelf. Impossible.

So, no. Money can't buy happiness but it gives you certain freedoms to pursue it. Just like an expensive bed couldn't buy a good night's rest, but it helps.

"Money doesn't buy you happiness, but it does buy you everything else"

so yes

The comments have better answers to the question than the video ‼️🥂

The answer is yes. But the real problem comes from people thinking more money buys more happiness. It’s not a linear scale, but yes, money does buy *happiness*

Damn. Good point

Time is the great equalizer

Is it a stupid question to ask what the money is spent on?

"Stategic money can buy happiness. Unstrategic money can buy misery."

You can be on the street and be ecstatic. You can be Rich but miserable. Both ways are possible.

That is the stupidest response to the question I've ever heard

Can't be happy without money. It's not a stupid question.

He really got up on his high horse to say some dumb, low level shit.

I'd say it buys peace of mind. About the only thing i can't buy these days is a house right now. But I'm working on that right now.

It's already been proven that money buys happiness up until a certain salary. Several years back that was $70,000 a year, give or take. Now it might be more like $100,000??

Money doesn’t buy happiness it buys opportunities. A lot of money can allow you the opportunity to buy the penthouse but if you don’t do the research you’ve wasted the opportunity at comfortably on convenience.

If the wealthiest people in the world knew how to buy happiness, they wouldn't be getting wealthier. If you want to find out how money can buy happiness, find happy people who are not getting wealthier.

What is controversial about this? :D The answer is in 99,9999999% cases, yes, money extremely improves people's circumstances, therefore leads to happier lives. Money is not the only sourse of happiness and should not be the primary source of it, but let's face it, having extra $10,000 a year, a month etc. positively impacts your life. Of course, if you spend that money on useless things, drugs, alcohol and things that diminish your life, it is not the case. But that is such a "well, duh" moment if I ever saw one. Truly mindblowing these podcasts are becoming (/s)

Wise

Also, a lack of money brings stress and misery. Not having money for food or bills is a sensation that guys like this probably haven't experienced in their lives. Like fuck spending money on luxury shit for happiness, most people just want the basic necessities to live.

Well SAID 👍👍

The attack on the gaykeeper 😂😂

The question isn't stupid. People are.

Q: Can money buy happiness? A: Yes, but like, if you buy something stupid it can make you unhappy. Uhh.. ok?

"You can't buy happiness, but you can buy dirt..."

Money is a tool of power & more choices but happens is enjoying what you have already enjoy simple stuff preyers talking with family watching nature & imagine it's compuments & creation of it's laws & just get low on dopamine to wake up & watch life around you

You always hear those with money like, celebrities saying, "Money doesn't buy happiness", to which I say, "Fine. Trade bank accounts with me and we'll meet up in five years to see if that holds true."

You can move from a crappy little apartment to a big penthouse, but after a while you realize the "I'm home" feeling is still the same like before. It's just your home

Penthouse and salary in the same sentence 😂😂😂

I’m dumbfounded as to why that’s even a question. Why the preoccupation with happiness? It’s not even that profound of a state.

Money buys you out of sadness

And now since you said that, that's the most nonsensical materialistic worldview answer I've ever heard. Everything there, is about temporal happiness, nothing about lasting happiness, peace, tranquility and comfort. Money truly can't buy happiness at all. You might bought joy, ie. Temporal happiness, but never actual happiness, regardless if you managed it or not. Those that achieved their material happiness end up depressed, no matter where you gove excuses to.

Answer was too complicated... It caused me misery. Money buys happiness. It just depends on what you mean by happiness.

Most reasonable people aren't thinking of penthouses, they are thinking of the fact enough money will get them comfort, security and maybe some nice family holidays with the kids to look forward to.

Here's a better way to look at it: Does being broke make you miserable? Well, when you can't afford health care, food, clothes, a safe and comfortable living environment for you and your loved ones - you sure as shit will know the answer to that question.

Money buys time. Time buys happiness

in other words: "depends what you do with it"

Money doesnt buy happiness is a phrase of a poor person as a coping mechanism for being poor

peace = happiness, according to this video

Of course it does.

is peace happiness?

No... you can be as strategic as you want and you could still end up neighbors to pdiddy & in missery. The reason its said money doesn't by happiness is because of exactly what you demonstrated. Your happiness isn't contingent on money. People have been shown that even in extremely difficult times far beyond anything any poor person in the us would go through can still be happy. And even in your example. Purchasing the ear plugs didn't create happiness. That elated & excited feeling after a situation is not happiness. Those are fleeting moments that last a few hours thats it. If thats what you chase your not chasing happiness.

show me the noise cancelling earplugs that cost 10$ and actually work

The most useless analysis drenched in pretentiousness

I’m sorry did he just say “happiness is based on your choices” but used many many many more words and made it sound like somehow it has something to do vaguely with money? Ugh

It only buys distractions

Nah, money buys peace. You create happiness

If you don’t think money can buy happiness you’re spending it wrong

For some having that huge plus number on their bank account make them happy and confident. For others just to get the essentials are content. Now how about you won the lottery today but tomorrow you found out you have advanced cancer. How does that make you feel?

You mean poorly spent money doesnt buy happiness? WOW!

Law of attraction, if you think money buys happiness; then it does.

Way to miss the point. Go a little deeper. Money = FREEDOM….. = happiness.

Money no everything. No money everything - Kanyestest West

Everyone wants to be rich so what you should do is do the exact opposite, do what everyone's not doing and try and become poor,

The real question is what can you buy without money? A whole lot of nothing.

This didn't need to be uploaded, or even said out loud.

Just make sure you don't live next to p Diddy

Everybody is a philosipher these days😅

His world views will change another 3 times by the time he’s in his twenties.

Lost me on word “salary”. I’d be happy just by not needing that

Stupid answer. Its not that deep. Money does buy happiness, simple

Garbage analogy

He could have just said utility

There is honestly nothing even remotely insightful about what this guy said. The phrase itself has to be tackled at the margin, pointing out that there are examples either side of it is the ultimate no shit Sherlock. Aggregate all such decisions, is there a correlation between the two. An almost impossible task given how many variables are at play, but at least that is where any theoretical discussion should take place

The most cash strapped I've ever been and the most miserable I've ever been. Don't get married.

Why does he talk like Chris?😂

It’s not actually that deep. 😂