Is money a defining factor in happiness? Does greed outweigh happiness?

@ the above, "Wouldn't we be happier in a moneyless society where money, banks and corporations didn't control everything we did?"

That's another point altogether, and I think it's an irrelevant one since the world we live in is not that one and won't become that one in the foreseeable future. We would probably be happier c.p., but we would certainly find a way to ruin it.

 

I cbf reading through each and every previous post but I know this:

On average those who are around or below the poverty line have an increased level of cortisol (stress hormone). There are numerous scientific studies on this. Some people believe that these levels are based on the fact that if you are living paycheck to paycheck, you have to stress not only at work, but also when you come back to the house. This is pretty obvious. Higher cortisol on a continuous basis can lead on increased risk of heart disease and other issues due to high blood pressure. This is not to say that stress itself will make someone unhappy. So yes money does matter alot. Whenever people ask this question I tell them this, but I also qualify it by saying that although money can impact happiness, it is not the main determinant. Also, of course there are always outliers (people who are extremely poor but happy and people who are very rich and very unhappy)...but I think here we are making generalizations which is the point of the thread.

 

I think money is very important but it's not everything.
When you have money, you can do so much more than when you don't have money at all.
However, even without money a person can be happy. I went to India and many people there were poor but some of the people I met there were still very happy just because they had their families.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, both sides are kind of right. You can be happy with or without money but I think having money is very beneficial.

 

Money in general causes discontent, which is an angle I don't think anyone's touched on in this thread. It's all been an individuals perspective.

We will never live in a happy society either; but here we are debating happiness. Just because something might not happen doesn't make it any more invalid or false.

 

Most of the people say "no" because either a) They have never had such wealth to buy happiness, or b) They did make the big bucks, and blew it all on gambling, drugs etc...

If you know how to spend money, then yes, it can buy happiness if you be stupid it with it then no. For me, it has bought happiness but I personally have friends that have used money the wrong way, didn't respect the money and it blew up in there face and went from riches to rags.

 

I don't think money causes discontent. I think our envy and greed causes discontent, for whenever we compare ourselves to others, we will never be happy. We will always think that they have something more and we have something less. Money is just an easy example to use, but I honestly think (I know this is cheesy) that the problem is ourselves.

 

Honestly, I always grew up wanting nice cars and success so to me it is.

 

Money is used to exploit, control and cheat. Most people's worries and "I'm unable to do X because.." is money. Because they don't have the money to do the things they want to do to make them happy. So then people say because of this "money can buy happiness" - and arguably, yes, it does. But take money away and there's no worries in the first place.

Now I'm not saying that there's this suddenly clear moneyless system; but it's just a fact. What can be done with that fact is a different debate.

 

You can control, cheat, and exploit people without money... and if money causes discontent, it's still a factor in happiness, just a negative one. I still think we'd have another set of problems in lieu of monetary-related ones were money nonexistent, but I'm happy to agree to disagree with you on that lol

 

Hell, no. It's the very opposite, money brings disgrace, sadness, loneliness but yet we all aim it as our life goal. I'm very closed and experienced with rich people but I'm poor, and I can see how much happier I am.

 

Money isn't used to exploit, control, and cheat. It has the potential to be used in negative ways, and in most scenarios, people choose to use money that way. Taking away money will not remove worries in my opinion. The human in general will always find a way to use currency and exploit it.

 

^ Or if not currency/fiat, something else

 

Sort of lame article but still http://www.theprovince.com/life/Having+money+bank+make+less+happy+study+finds/10761533/story.html

 

Taking money away will transition essentially all economies from an indirect exchange economy to a direct exchange economy. A direct exchange economy is incompatible with an economy as complex as ours. Peoples standards of living, quality of life, the economic output of society etc etc will plummet if money is taken away. Our economy and subsequent quality of life is dependent on the existence of money.

If you want to go a bit more in-depth and say if we remove fiat currency there would be no worries, aside from the adjustment phase, yes there mightn't be any 'worries' but money would still exist in another form, see banknotes or commodity money. If anyone thinks money is not a fundamental feature, attempt to live your life by that, you will die of starvation shortly.

 

Money gives you happiness up to a certain point.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/map-happiness-benchmark_n_5592194.html

I live in NJ where I apparently need 95k to be happy. I should move to Texas where I'd only need 69k. Heard there's good jobs there too...

 

That's just $75k adjusted for cost of living. The more interesting statement is in the caption, that "high income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being"

 

And no trade and ultimately the dark ages... no worries there right?

 

This varies greatly on location of course, for example I'm sure people in South Dakota would be happier for a smaller salary because things aren't as expensive there as in say New York or California

 

I'm a firm believer people who say money can't buy happiness have never had any..

Or at the very least have not had enough to ;-)

 

So money has made you happy? Care to share an example?