money and happiness

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Money and Happiness
The question of whether money can buy happiness or whether happiness comes indirectly from a higher rank has brought about several debates. The term happiness can have several meanings for different individuals when its definition is based on the achievement and fulfillment of one’s needs. If people would not be basing happiness on the socioeconomic status, then there would not be several unhappy people in the society. The concept of money and happiness are normally assumed to be linked. People believe that more money leads to more happiness. The absolute income hypothesis shows that richer people are happier than the poor in the same society. In this excerpt, I will compare and contrast the concepts of money and happiness.
Some people argue that money can buy happiness since it can be exchanged for goods and services that in turn increases an individual’s utility. Thus, this idea shows that money and happiness are causally linked and directly related. An individual who is amongst richer people than himself can be adversely affected causing him to lack happiness, this shows that there is a comparison between the concepts of being happy and money. Therefore, one can argue that happiness is not brought about by the absolute amount of money that an individual has but by the amount of money that an individual receives relative to that of their peers. If one becomes happier by getting more money than his peer the fact remains that the more the money an individual has, the happier he will be, hence money brings happiness.

In the reference income hypothesis, people normally care how much money they get compared to their reference income, the norm and that of the socially constructed group. The more, an individual has made him happy because it is possible for him to buy things that will make him happy. Besides, people tend to be happy if they have more money to satisfy their needs than the comparison set, and they tend to be sad if their counterparts have more money to satisfy themselves when compared to them. In other situations, people will feel happy if they are the most highly paid in an organization but when someone is paid more money than them they feel sad.
Although some people may argue that happiness is not the result of personal achievement and the amount of money that one has. There is a cross relationship between the amount of money that an individual has and his happiness. They also argue that people are normally unhappy due to other factors such as lack of love in their lives. Other factors that may make one unhappy include pain, depression, suffering, and low self-esteem. Although these factors determine whether an individual will be happy or not the major contributing factor to one’s happiness is money. Without money, one cannot acquire the basic needs such as food, shelter and clothes. Money helps people to acquire things that make their lives more comfortable. Hence, the more the money an individual has, the happier he will be.
The concepts of money and happiness are directly related. The more the money and individual has the more comfortable he will be. If one does not have more, he ends up lacking the basic need and this result to not being happy. Although there are several factors that might cause one to be sad despite having money, such as lack of love. Money is what determines whether an individual will be happy or not.