Can happiness be bought by money?

It can be bought for a while, but money won’t fill that void in your soul.

happiness are in two ways…materialistic happiness and emotional happiness…..i’ll agree that yes materialistic happines may be bought by money…but what about our emotions..can money buy that…

No, but you can pay for less misery. Sufficient money is all that is needed, sufficient to remove financial stress. More than that adds nothing.

Money doesn’t buy happiness? ... Try to frown on a waverunner

Money doesn’t guarantee happiness, but it certainly helps.
People go way too far, though.

I honestly can’t say I know whether money can buy happiness.

But I’m more than willing to try! =-D

It really all depends on what makes you happy. If traveling the world is your thing than money might be what you need to feel like your life is fulfilled, but if you find happiness in more simple (less costly) things like arts and crafts than you can live happily without nearly as much money.

temporary happiness can.
but then, all happiness is temporary

it can but chocolatey goodness…which for women releases the same hormone as when they’re in love…which in my definition..makes people happy =)

No, no, no. It really can’t.

If, however, you have some to spare, science says buy and experience rather than a thing.

ultimately no, but it can come pretty close. i only say that because, taking myself for example, what i want more than anything is to see the world and that would be so easy and simple if i had money. that experience in turn would make me very happy.

BUT…..it cant buy love.

It can by a way to happiness. Like books! As long as you don’t come to rely on money alone for happiness!

@Blanket_Jackson….It’s great to see you, kid….I trust you are feeling better. Others have said it above, but I think it comes down to this: money can alleviate stresses, such as financial woes, and it can provide distractions, which are sometimes quite fun, but it will never, ever buy you true emotional happiness. It may fool you into believing otherwise for the short term, but in the long term only a fool would believe what money bought you is anything even close to real, true happiness. See ya….Gary (aka wtf)

No..but it can help. If you loved to ski, for example (as I do), money could buy you a nice house slope side at Vail.

A sure-fire way to make yourself happy though, lies in your job (unless you’re already retired), since you probably spend 8+ hours there per day. Find something that you love to do. Now find somebody who will pay you to do it (or a related activity). Bingo…you’re now happy.

I think it’s entirely possible for people to have a clinical addiction to making money.

I see no justification for making broad, pithy generalizations about this. Happiness is, in a very real sense, a chemical state of the body, and no matter how artificially this chemical state is induced, it is indistinguishable from “true happiness”. It is sheer romanticism to imagine that it is not. What distinguishes “emotional” from “false” happiness, for almost all examples I have seen, is simply that the former lasts longer and has fewer repercussions. It is obviously possible for a person to experience happiness by way of wealth, and while for many or most this happiness is rendered temporary by the tendency to become jaded to the pleasures that one possesses, it seems almost certain that some people have personalities or indeed biological abnormalities that allow them to derive the same amount of pleasure indefinitely from their wealth, in which case their money has indeed bought happiness. It is arrogant to presume, just because you feel you need more than money to be happy, that others must have that same need, and that if they don’t, then their happiness is less “real” than yours.

In some ways, yes:
money can buy you better healthcare and being healthy increases well being
money can buy you better nutrition which means better well being
money can buy you more secure shelter which means better well being

Money can buy you things, but not things of any lasting value. People who try to use their money to make themselves happy, ultimately fail.

Also with @hungryhungryhortence on this. Money can’t buy happiness, but not having money makes a lot of people really unhappy.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic: Personally, I’ve had money and then I’ve had not enough and I definitely prefer and was happier with more money and everything I was able to manage by it.

money cannot in itself buy happiness, but having sufficient money can alleviate anxiety that one might get from not being able to pay bills. when i was in college i was always broke, always had car insurance payments, registration, repairs, etc. and i had some anxiety about not being able to pay for these things. now that i am all grown up and have a good job, i don’t have these financial problems. i am ok in the money department. therefore, i no longer have financial issues on my mind constantly.

when you have enough money to be comfortable, you have more options in life. when you have none, you simply cannot travel,go out, buy things. not that these things make you happy, but you don’t have the option when you have no money. when you have money, you have more choices available to you in life. is that happiness? i don’t know, but it is satisfying to have choices.

Well, I know that one can buy pride and joy, but I don’t know about happiness.

@ekans Sure, Forget too.

No, not unless you can buy friends but friends + money can make more happiness.

@Jayne….Well then call me a romantic fool for thinking “happiness” is more than a IV drip of just the right chemical. Good luck on your quest of the latter…I truly hope you find it and you believe your life is “richer” for it.

@whatthefluther; see, I don’t actually think that a straight chemical infusion would bring lasting happiness, if only because your body would require higher and higher doses, until it killed you. My statement that all happiness is chemical was meant to illustrate the point that the cause of happiness can vary widely from person to person; so long as it results in the attainment of the necessary biological state, then the person has become happy. Of course, most people, including myself, are only able to maintain this state, to achieve lasting happiness, if they are fulfilled on a deeper emotional level, through their relationships with other people, but there is no theoretical reason that it can not be maintained for some people by the simple possession of wealth. In short, happiness is not defined by or tied to deep emotional fulfillment; that is simply the means through which most people are able to achieve it.

The key to happiness with money is not to worry or think about the money but the experiences it can afford. It would be pointless to have money if all you’re thinking about is how to keep it or earn more.
It is only a means, not the means to happiness.
Some people find happiness at the simplest things that don’t even cost money. A rainbow, a new sunrise, sunset with someone special, etc.