Introduction
The attempt of looking for the good in life is an ongoing process and it is not something that can be pursued at an instant. Many people will pursue several things to attain the ‘good life’; I look at attaining wealth, the kind that gives freedom as my major goal. My desire to attain wealth goes beyond more real purchasing power to bring internal happiness.
Money
As a facilitation of trade, money is a mode of exchange. Due to the flexibility that money possesses it makes it a remarkable improvement from the era of barter trade. We will start by having a look at the history of money as a mode of exchange as we continue.
A currency that is monetary can be traded for all types of services and goods; its use gives an individual the freedom to trade with only those traders who offer what he or she would like and who are in turn interested in the products he or she has to offer (Baumeister, 1991). For example a fruit vendor may only buy vegetables from a farm owner who in turn is interested in fruit so they make an exchange. Individual products automatically expand in value due to the conversion of money into various goods and services.
The adoption of a common currency has enabled one’s own productive output to acquire satisfactory enhanced power. Having money in one’s purse or wallet shows the ability to get the goods you want from people who are willing to trade with you. Being able to satisfy our desires is the one of the most basic reasons for us to seek money.
Where is money from? And what is the source of our wealth? In the most fundamental level money comes from the creation of something of value and or the production of goods and services. Money comes from the creation of a valuable product that people feel is sufficiently valuable for trade. If one creates a product that is not in demand, he or she will not acquire money for it. However if the product might be of some value, or might be of some constructive purpose in his or her life then this product will constitute to being part of his or her wealth. The output of an individual is of great value money wise especially if a big number of people desire the product.
An individual might earn money through various means such as inheritance or salary. But if we look at the roots of money, it crops up from someone’s creation of goods. There are two objects that stand to describing money and that is notes and bills which have been brought into existence by people. These objects also include programs, formulas, specific processes, compositions and services.
The holding of a currency such as dollars, is used here to refer to wealth and money while examples such as cars, houses, equipment and capital are the products we are referring to where the currency is used to trade for. I will be using the terms financial, monetary and wealth as a form of currency.
Happiness
The psychological achievement of our values is what we can refer to as happiness (Baumeister, 1991). Values are the ends we keep or gain. They are the things that we care about doing, having and acting upon to ensure we secure them. Our values can be spiritual or material. Our spiritual values are those that comprise of our consciousness and mainly entail things such as character traits for example honesty, mental health, beauty and knowledge (De Botton, 2001).
The satisfaction that comes about due to the realization of our values is the best way to describe happiness. So whether as a person you have achieved a college degree or gotten married the principle of happiness still remains the achievement of our values.
De Botton (2001) puts it “happiness and unhappiness are sisters and even twins that grow together.”Our happiness on a universal level is due to the awareness that we will continue to realize our values on a regular basis even in the event of frustrations. In this case the happiness involves us feeling good about things for at least five or six times in a week. Our experience of satisfaction at this rate is characteristic and has value-achievement.
In order to gain happiness we must identify clearly ends that are compatible mutually, ends that improve our well being, ends that enable us to act in a thoughtful manner and ends that are logical. In the long term value-achievement cannot be sustained by acting randomly.
Finally happiness should not be equated to pleasure that comes by due to the satisfaction of a desire. Our objects of desire even through our experiences are not uniformly good for us. The strong desire for a product like a certain drug does not mean having it is in any way considered to be beneficial or will make us happy.
How wealth links to the good in life
Money contributes to happiness and meaning in life in two principled ways that is directly and indirectly. The achievement of our values is possible because of the money.
Material beings have material needs
We humans are spiritual and physical beings both by the body and consciousness. Hence we have material needs and money is essential to fulfill these needs as it gives us the ability to trade for the goods we desire to have. Some people like Tolstoy (1984) notes spirituality and faith provides meaning to human life and that it makes life worth living. But biologically what keeps us going is the fulfillment of our physical needs.
Money is the means in which goods and services are acquired for the maintenance of life hence putting in the notion material goods are important for happiness. Material wealth is good only when it gives a positive contribution to our flourish and survival. Material wealth remains neutral morally up to the point it carries some palpable impact on our well being.
Money is time
The famous saying time is money says it all, but equally true though less appreciated by most is the fact that money is time and it is this observation that shows us how money contributes to happiness.
With no money, we simply work hard to perform the tasks that must be done for the day just to satisfy the bare necessities. With money, we even go as far as to think about what we would love to do and even have time to go deeper into what we prefer to do.
An autonomy that is the scaffolding of happiness is empowered by money. The more the independence from necessity demands the greater the discretion over activities that we need to partake in, thus enabling us have more control over how our days will be. The power that money has to widen our options is where the heart of our happiness lies.
Clarifications
In my claim that money can bring in true value in life I have not contended that it does so in every case. Happiness is not a product to be advertised neither is it ready made. Money can also in many ways buy misery, addictions or even depression as stated by Wan and Horsey (2005) hence I do not propose money to be a psychological panacea. Much more goes into happiness than materialism.
In this era of consumption that is conspicuous it is almost hilarious to say money is underrated. It is not a must for someone to be super rich to dine in expensive restaurants, drive a flashy car like a Mercedes, go to spas or classy beauty salons for facials or massages and unlike before have a daily routine that is technologically facilitated for convenience purposes. It has become a nationwide addiction to just shop and charge.
We human beings generally have a never ending appetite for material goods and this is a fact that at times comes with feelings of guilt as some deep part of us views the desire of material wealth as a vice (Wann and Horsey, 2005). An analysis made by Tolstoy (1984) is that the people of today are too busy seeking for value hence in the process of pursuing their goals they fail to recognize a more worthy pursuits out there.
People who overwork always complain of not having enough time to enjoy what they have acquired and this is because our obsession with material goods has brought about so many imbalances. Consumer society is a term used to define modern life hence it is more of a derisive rather than a neutral description (Wann and Horsey, 2005). On a theoretical point of view money is a subject that is attacked both from right to left, an example is social commentators who voice their warnings to parents who take it too easy on their children who eventually end up spoilt or the complaints from pharmaceutical companies over the power the rich posses or the recent World Trade Organization protests in their meetings.
Across the political divide there is a general agreement that those who are successful materially should have the task to give back to their respective communities; this may be a case of taking on too much as far as prosperity is concerned.
The temptation to have material wealth is a topic that has brought about many warnings from the religious leaders and teachings. They warn against the love of money as it is a temptation to sin and a distraction from God, the same goes for luxurious living. Economists have added their weight to the spiritual yearnings of the priests by weighing data collected from social science by conducting studies on people’s life-satisfaction levels and their income. In the end they concluded that the saying money can’t buy happiness is actually true.
Wealth is not good unconditionally hence the wealth we attain as individuals is like a tool and to gain happiness we should use the tool wisely.
There is a difference between money appropriators and money makers. The money appropriator obtains his money through manipulation of other people and does not create anything of value while the money maker creates new products that are worthwhile and have genuine value. In the end the money that a money maker acquires is what contributes to one’s happiness for him money is a means to an end.
As much as money promises happiness it cannot guarantee it. Money does not give us the skills to know how to steer our activities effectively and which direction and it can only buy us happiness when we have rational goals and with a rational means of pursuing these goals.
Reports that come about from studies done by economists on the rise of income don’t lead to a rise in life-satisfaction always and only conclude that it is really not a sufficient condition for happiness (Myers and Diener, 1995). An unsettling fact though initially is that poor people can be happy and this brings about the fact that money is not necessary for happiness at all.
What I am emphasizing is that money intelligently spent and intelligently pursued can give real meaning to life in all the ways I have shown. Money purchases time and it buys commodities as well. In the image of one’s ideal the autonomy of one’s life can be bought by money. Happiness is nourished by money through helping us achieve the values that happiness is made of. Money just like everything in life can be put to good use including the greater use such as the happiness in living and it can also be used poorly such as buying narcotic drugs. The fact needs to be acknowledged head on if we are to unapologetically embrace money and if we wish to take sufficient control over our lives and realize the ends we need to fulfill our dreams.
Conclusion
Happiness is not an easy task as the cliché money can’t buy happiness portrays. Around the fact money has no shortcut. However it is tantamount to appreciate the danger posed by money can’t buy happiness.
On one hand it is dangerous and simply bad advice to counterproductive individuals who are attaining happiness in real sense. If money can in any way add to a person’s happiness as argued with me and if it is needed for the happiness of particular preconditions and minimal ingredients then insisting that it cannot would be to close the doors to happiness. It puts a block on the path which if followed by an individual could bring them to achieve their values. To advise people away from money blocks their path to happiness.
On a deeper note the very quest for happiness would be distorted if the pursuit of money is discouraged knowing only too well that money enables an individual to fulfill his or her desires hence they are able to have a better life.
In an excessively materialistic society, some people might worry on trying to encourage more money chasing activities. My aim is not money chasing just for the sake of it. Money is not the main problem even as people in the society lament on priorities that are prevalent. We have made money seem worthless in the process of teaching on how money is not the most important thing. It is bad to dismiss material goods and money as bad as much as they are not 100% good.
Consideration of the role that money plays in happiness pushes us to confront happiness and its nature which is a broad subject. As a function for success happiness is a result of achieving one’s values. In a more crucial aspect money facilitates values achievement. The process of achieving values is making money literally speaking, while money is spent by purchasing goods and services that enhance or realize our values. Money enables a person to do what he wants to do and get what he needs hence it is to be pursued, cheered upon and celebrated.
Most people would ask, “Why extend such privileges to money?” Well it’s because happiness is the most important thing in life and money can and will by all means contribute to it.
References
Baumeister, R. (1991). Meanings of life. New York: Guilford.
De Botton, A. (2001) The consolation of Philosophy. International. ISBN: 0-679-77917-5
Myers, D. G., & Diener, E. (1995). Who is happy? Psychologic al Science, 6, 10-19.
Tolstoy, L. (1984 Paperback Reprint) Confession. London: Norton & Company, Incorporated, W.W. ISBN: 0-39330192-3
Wann, D and Horsey, N. (2005) Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic (2nd Ed.). Berrett-Koehler Publishers: ISBN-10: 1576753573
