Money doesn’t buy you happiness – my counter-argument

By 19:20

I’ve had countless discussions with people with money and they always say “money doesn’t buy happiness”. It’s something I’ve heard all my life and it’s definitely not a revelation. Of course money doesn’t buy you happiness! But the rich bemoan as if it’s the one thing that they can that they can complain about; that their lives aren’t filled with happiness because of money.


Basically, the argument is that even though the rich grew up with money, it doesn’t mean they had a happy childhood. And they’ve seen that poor people are much richer in terms of the friends and family that they have. This opinion piece is why I think their argument is flawed.

We all have our problems and while money does not solve all of them, it does make things easier. Here’s an example. Person A professes to have daddy issues because daddy was never around because he was too busy making more money. Person B also has daddy issues because daddy was never around because he was too busy working a menial job in order to put food on the table.

In both cases, they weren’t happy. But Person A got to be more technologically advanced, got a better education and got the advantage of a head start in life because of money. Person B followed in his parents’ paths in life and struggled to make ends meet. Yes, in both cases the individuals weren’t happy but didn’t money in this example make life just a little bit easier.

There are a lot of reasons for unhappiness: poor health, the inability to make ends meet, suffering of loved ones – these are things that afflict both the rich and the poor. Money solves these problems or makes them a little easier.

And granted there are sources of unhappiness that can’t be solved with money like the search for a soul mate or being in a job you hate. Again these things affect both the rich and the poor and money will probably be of little help here.

Then there’s the theory that poor people are rich in family who love each other. What bullshit! Not having money is extremely stressful. It’s the source of many fights between couples. When you need to make sure that the basics like food, healthcare and school fees are covered when you’re in a minimum wage job; it’s certainly not a happy place to be in. And even if you’re lucky enough to be surrounded by love and family, it still doesn’t mean you’re happy.


So to the rich people out there, the poor don’t have the upper hand at happiness. Let’s level the monetary playing field first and then we can all bemoan about how our money doesn’t make us happy. Don’t believe me? Get rid of all your money and prove me wrong. Go be happy.

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2 comments

  1. This is such is a great view... Just to add to your views, rich people must learn to be content. I think there's a huge difference between being happy and being content. From many of my personal experiences I've found that happiest of people don't always necessarily have everything they want, but they learn to make the best of every situation. This is where I find rich people get jealous. Poor/middle-class people may not have everything, but they learn to make the best of everything they have.

    Again, my personal view and experience, poorer people / middle-class people's children are often more hard-working and ambitious than rich people's children. I'm not saying all, but most of the time. Eg) Poorer people / middle-class can't afford for their kid to fail at varsity. It's already costing them a fortune just to send their kid to varsity.

    Just my views :) thanks for sharing

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for sharing. I totally agree from my experience on the varying degrees of hard work and ambition people have based on their financial background

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