Oh, please.
I have no idea who said this for the first time but I’m sure he or she was very very wrong.
What is this happyness everyone is talking about? Happiness is a state of mind. It’s an incomplete definition, because happiness means different things for different people.
For me, happyness is ‘when everything is in harmony’. I can’t say I’m happy when I have no problems, that would mean I’d never be happy. I just think that when everything falls into place, we should be able to feel some sort of joy.
Now, I wonder who believes that money don’t have any part in this.
When was the last time you saw a hungry person smiling all the time? Or a homeless guy dancing with joy in the snow? Or an ill person laughing at the fact there’s no money for a treatment plan?
And with this economic crisis on our heads, these kind of problems come up pretty often.
As kids, we grew up with fairytales that our parents told us every day: Snow White, Cinderella, Lady and The Tramp… i’m sure noone remembers them all but the main idea was that the rich people are bad and the poor always end up living happily everafter and money are never important. However, none of these stories told us rich people are also human and happiness is subjective.
As kids we were happy no matter what. Whenever we felt sad there was no serious reason (not eating the last piece of chocolate is not a serious reason). We were protected by our parents and relatives and had no ‘real’ reason not to be happy little people.
As we grow older though, some problems did appear, but none of them were lifethreataning. I also fought with my boyfriend in my teen years, got bad grades in highschool and I also got grounded and felt the sky was falling on my head. None of these problems though had to do with money. For our generation it usualy wasn’t the end of the world if we didn’t have the latest Play Station and it shouldn’t be one now either.
Real problems appear when we are no longer under the protection we had until now. We are forced (theoreticaly) to find jobs, homes and a way to have our own lives. Our parents and loved ones helped us enough, it’s time to move on, but how do you move on without any money?
This is where I wanted to arrive with my idea. All our lives we grew up under the impression that money is not important. Cinderella was very poor, but she found love, The Tramp was a stray poor dog, but it was such a gentleman that Lady fell for him.
It’s time to wake up and smell the roses. Those are only stories. Without money we would slowly become grumpy, mean and fall out of love because our primary needs are not met.
Love doesn’t make hunger go away, food does. Money is such an important aspect in our lives that I don’t really understand why someone would say it doesn’t buy happiness. Sure, the rich are not always happy and a millionaire can still have problems but that doesn’t mean they are misarable.
Maybe money doesn’t make us burst into tears of joy every time, but it does buy the necessary things we need. I payed money for my clothes and shoes, I am happy I can see the road with the glasses that cost money, I’m glad I have a chance to study to be an engineer because I pay for my school years, and the examples can go on.
Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it damn well buys the things we need. I for one cannot live without electricity, without hot water or without breakfast, lunch and dinner so whoever believed money are not important surely lived in a cave and despised people who wear shoes.
