Well, doesn't that depend on what's causing you to be unhappy, in the first place? If you've just lost a loved one, no amount of money will make you happy, only time and your own attitude will eventually lessen the pain and hopefully bring some joy back into your life. However, if a stack of unpaid bills is facing you each day, wouldn't enough money to pay them, not make you happy? If you are someone you love, needs expensive medical care and you can't afford it, would money not be the happy answer? So, before we adopt some of these truisms about money, we should see how they apply to the reality of the situation. Money is not a "magic bullet", but then in life, what is? But the effectiveness of money, like most of the things we use and have come to rely on in our world, it is all relative. Being without money doesn't automatically make someone unhappy, but neither does having money guarantee happiness. Rich people are happy because they don't have to be worried and unhappy about not being able to pay bills, make purchases they want, travel, entertain and so on. But if they became ill and money could not help, they would be just as unhappy and miserable as the poor person who cannot afford the treatment in the first place. Money cannot buy anyone more time, but it can give you more freedom to choose how you use your time. A very happy by-product, choice! "Freedom of choice", if there was ever a magical phrase, that one is it! That is the happiness that money buys! Lack of money or too little money, limits the choices we can make in and about our lives. |
