Does Money Relate to Happiness

Throughout the year people have wondered “How does money and happiness relate to each other?” In reality, money has nothing to do with happiness. People say that money can buy happiness because it buys materialistic things that please oneself, but are the really pleased. With money, people are never happy and will always want the next big thing that is out there available for them. Through peoples greed and malicious behavior we see how money and happiness have nothing in common.

One of the reason one can never be happy with loads of cash is because of greed. Us as humans naturally want more better things than what we had before. For example “If you win the lottery you may feel richer than your neighbors, and think that moving to a mansion in a new neighborhood would make you happy, but then you look out of the window and realize that all your new friends live in bigger mansions.“ (https://diigo.com/075cc0) Winning the lottery change peoples lives, but are they really much happier with a bunch of money that will be spent cause they will always want more. Besides from getting lots of money, people like to work hard for what they get, they like having a little self pride in what they make. Now that they can just buy whatever they want, they no longer have that self-pride anymore like they would have by earning what they have. Hsee inducted this experiment on a group of people giving them the choice to work harder for more or work not as hard for a little bit of stuff. People have pride in what they do because they earned it by themselves. (https://diigo.com/075cc0)

happiness is earned through hard work and dedication. People love the work they put into something and they love seeing the end results. During the Industrialization, Americans faced the same problem. With all the factories out, there was no need for skilled workers when they have machines that can do it for cheap. People were losing their pride and forced to work as a simple factory worker. Some people love what they do and take pride in it which brings them happiness. How can people reach this happiness if they are just given a large of cash that will never satisfy them. “In the city you see people grasping, grasping, grasping. Taking, taking, taking. And it must be so hard! To be always grasping-grasping, and taking-taking. But no matter how much they have, they never have enough. They’re still worried. About what they don’t have. They’re always empty.” (https://diigo.com/075cfx) People will lose their pride with lots of cash.

Some people may not realize that with money comes corruption. People will never be satisfied with what they have, which is why they use money to get what they want. For example, if we think back to the Gilded Age of America, we may see all the corruption that lied beneath everything. All this corruption was cause by money. People will always be corrupted with money and abuse its power. ““Wealth—its uses and abuses—is a subject that has intrigued me since my youth in the rural Midwest,” West writes in the introduction to his study of billionaires.” (https://diigo.com/075cfx) Wealth has corruption and and contains lots of power, majority of the people who have are corrupted and will never be happy. Only 1% of our population contains a third of America’s wealth. Berkeley psychologist did a study on a four way crossroad. They found that 46.2 percent of the nicer cars disrespected the pedestrians as opposed to all the older cars who respected pedestrians. (https://diigo.com/075cfx) This shows how money changes people and the way they act.
Another example that can show that money doesn't relate to happiness can be found in an American novel called “The Great Gatsby” by F.Scott Fitzgerald. We see the main character Jay Gatsby as a very wealthy man who pursues his love of his life. By using money he tries to win her back but fails in the end. This comes to show how wealthy people will never be satisfied with just their wealth. Gatsby had lots of money, but it was never good enough for him without the love of his life to share it with him. “Gatsby tries to buy his happiness is the extravagant parties he has at his house every weekend. At the parties guest marvel over his bright yellow Rolls Royce and his swimming pool. A personal pool in the 1920's took an extraordinary amount of money to operate.” (https://diigo.com/074uxr) Gatsby used all of his wealth to try and gain happiness but in the end, he failed. In the end Gatsby dies due to the corruption that came along with all of his wealth.

Throughout our history we see how all the wealth in the world will never buy one happiness. Due to the want and greed of man, One will never be satisfied with what they have. This will ultimately lead to corruption of man showing that there is no relation between money and happiness.