In this day and age money is displayed and worshiped immensely. Many believe that with money you have everything. When in reality, what you make of your wealth is what you make of yourself.
In the article, “How to buy happiness” by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, money, generosity and experiences are juggled to see which can have the ultimate outcome of happiness. They question what would one do if they were to wake up with one million dollars to their name. Due to research they share that when people have new found wealth the first thing they think about is themselves. Of course all sorts of material things such as clothes, shoes, bags, gadgets etc. come into people’s minds that they may not have been able to afford before. After thinking about all the nice luxurious things you can now obtain it’s hard to think that happiness doesn’t have to be expensive if it even costs anything at all. In the article they state, “studies by a generation of behavioral scientists show that material goods often fail to deliver lasting happiness.” In reality a lot of material things that are believed to bring happiness, don’t. One of the examples in the article is a family who moved because they didn’t like their old home. Years later when asked about their current state,they reported that they were living comfortably but their overall happiness hadn’t changed. Which further proves that happiness cannot be based on objects. Instead why not use the money in a way that someone else besides yourself can benefit? Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton believe that both sharing with others and experiences create happiness. An experiment is tried out on a campus when the question of, what would happen when you combine experiences and generosity. The students were given Starbucks gift cards, some were told to go buy something for themselves, another group was told to buy something for themselves and someone else and the last group was told to buy something for themselves and someone else but also had to hang out with the person at Starbucks. The people that were happiest were the people who bought something for someone else and shared the moment with them by just hanging out in Starbucks with them. Throughout this article it is shown that you shouldn’t wait around for an extra dollar to start living your life and enjoying yourself. Instead of missing out on events to be able to purchase a materialistic item later, live for the moment because it wouldn’t compare to the great memories you could be missing out on currently.
I believe happiness can’t be bought and agree with the points made in the article. A person can save to finally purchase a Chanel three thousand dollar purse and feel excited upon buying it but shortly after it’s just that – a purse. Compared to using that money to going on a vacation with family or close friends that would make life long memories. Material things are sometimes given too much importance because money brings out the selfish side of individuals.
