Does money make life worth living?

microphone head said:
edit: Oh and jhoffy22 - opportunities are not constrained to material goods. There may be an opportunity to save lives, educate the next generation for the better of the whole planet, free the innocent, end unnecessary poverty, anything really!

/hippy
Click to expand...

Yeah you're absolutely right man. I have a preconceived notion that the majority of people seek money for materialistic goods, services, and opportunities thinking that it will make their lives better (especially young internet marketers). It's just not the case, and you don't really reach that realization until you've been able to attain materialistic items and have that hindsight. I pity anyone that gets stuck in that loop always chasing money thinking that it's the answer to their happiness. It's how you use that money, and most people chase money for just pure greed. Maybe there are people out there that enjoy long term fulfillment from acquisition of their material desires? I don't know...that aint me man. I would love to be able to get a condo out west and fly out to the rockies and ski anytime I wanted. It's something I love and money is the obvious bottleneck given my circumstances. But even then, it would eventually become boring and would not longer provide any gratification for me, as is the case with most material desires. Always spinning my tires and running in circles comes to mind...
 


I remember reading a study about people that had moved from one socioeconomic level to another. It was interesting to note that the only group that reported a big jump in overall happiness were those who had moved from "extreme poverty" to a level where they were able to meet their basic needs. But middle class to upper class or rich to richer there wasn't a noticeable difference in happiness levels.

Now on the flip side, when the change was a downward one every group reported big drops in happiness. So while more money might not make us happier, losing money makes most of us unhappy.
 
happiness comes from within, money allows for you to have great experiences, enhances your life and allows you to do the things you want. If your a miserable prick no matter how much money you have it won't make you happy
 
Make money doing what you love.

No one has ever been happy chasing money.

It's a drug. No matter how rich you are, you'll want more of it. We all do.
 
Pheasant said:
... Ma?

tumblr_lh5i99zUis1qzw1g3o1_500.gif
Click to expand...

Thanks, man! 10/10 would fap again.
 
Money is a tool and should be treated as such. It will vary from person to person as the "effect" it will have.
 
Money makes people's life beautiful and it vary according to the nature of people, sometime it makes them mean and selfish.
 
GimpSpack said:
Anyway, I also question the existence of money, and if there are any economic alternatives that don't require money serving as the middle man between humans & goods/services (no luck yet).
Click to expand...

You won't have any luck.

Money is a natural evolution of a free market. If I have 3 goats, and I want to trade them for a rifle, I'd have to find a guy with a rifle who needs 3 goats.

That's a problem. Money has, and always will, naturally evolve out of market demand.

Money, being divisible, fungible and highly in-demand makes trade much more convenient.

The only way that money wouldn't exist would be a society that socializes all resources, where no one owns property or the products of their labor.

People bitch about capitalism, but it's the only system that would naturally emerge from a truly free society. If you think greed and corruption in capitalism is bad just imagine what a cartel that controls all of a society's resources would look like.

wezcountry said:
"I've been rich and I've been poor and I know which I prefer." Mick Jagger.
Click to expand...

There's a saying "money solves the problems that are caused by not having money". I agree.

When you're living month-to-month barely eating and paying the bills life is brutal hell. Once you're at a point where you can pay your bills and live well life is a lot more enjoyable.

I don't have a link to the source but I remember reading an article that when someone hits $100k+ a year the happiness that comes from money kind of levels off. Once you're somewhat financially secure and you can live relatively comfortably jumping from six-figures to multi-millionaire isn't going to make you a lot happier in the long run.

You may feel more secure or more successful, but after the threshold where basic needs are met the overall happiness it delivers tapers off.

Basically, not having enough money to live well creates stress and unhappiness. When someone fixes that problem, there's not a whole lot of additional happiness that comes solely from having more money.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom