Does money bring happiness - status anxiety

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Permalink Reply by Bandwidth on July 22, 2008 at 19:54

In my view having money does not create happiness. A lot of people who build wealth are seen as money focused, often money is purely a measure of how they are doing. This is much the same as somebody growing spriitual wealth they will establish a measure to gauge how they are doing.

What I believe is that happiness is a fleeting feeling and should not be considered a destination, rather a pick me up while on the journey

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Permalink Reply by Miffy on July 23, 2008 at 12:53

Hi Bytta, great post - thanks for the info. What does 72 out of 100 mean? What is our happiness relative to other nations? And what are we lacking to make up the other 28%?!!!

While it's true that a nation can be happy/unhappy due to the climate at that time, you really need to get down to the individual - you. We derive happiness from different areas and the secret is to figure out what it is that drives your happiness. Money is a given in our society, so take money out of the equation and look at what really makes you tick. I think we can lose sight of this a little as we chase more and more money in the quest for happiness. Sure, for some people the chasing of money in of itself is what will make them happy, but I think that this only applies to a precious few - both because chasing money can be quite an empty pursuit and at the end of the day is not so easy to get!

If your life is empty of the things that make you buzz, you too will feel empty. No matter how much money you have.

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Permalink Reply by Bytta on July 29, 2008 at 18:56

Hi Miffy,

72 was the average score from different categories like money, security (how we view the world after terrorist attacks), environment (pollution, drought and our contribution to helping the eco-system), our children, health, and many more.
It is also categorised to different groups of people based on age, location, gender, income, etc etc.

I dont think anyone will ever reach 100 as it is in our nature to seek something better and wanting something we dont have.

Interesting notion mentioned in that research that it takes different amount of money for different group of people to add 1 point of their well-being.
for example, for a group earning $28k a year or so, it takes less than extra $1000 in their income to increase by 1 well-being point.
while for people who earn over $300k, it will take more than $600k extra income to bump up their point.
Another interesting thing they show is female, married with children, 30+ and live in a household that earns over $150k is the group with the highest point.

note: this is not an exact figure as i read the report months ago and i'm scraping what's left in my memory, but those are the figures i remember distinctly.

I know this is just facts and figures, in the end it'll go down to individual.
even so, our individual view about happiness is mostly derived from social context (whether we are a follower or a rebel).

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Permalink Reply by AK47 on July 23, 2008 at 16:21

The key to happiness is to be content with what you have.

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Permalink Reply by Bandwidth on July 23, 2008 at 16:51

Is contentment the same as happiness ??? and does everybody think that way

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Permalink Reply by jacquesk on July 23, 2008 at 17:19

I think contentment is different from happiness and in many aspects more worthwhile. Happiness is a fleeting impression and unsustainable for long periods of time. Happiness as a language term is often used where terms like contentment or satisfaction would be a better descriptor.

Contentment is certainly a factor in how much happiness you will or can achieve. An addict (to use an extreme example) achieves happiness even bliss for a short period after gaining their addiction but soon after happiness disappears and the whole hunt for happiness starts again. Their contentment periods are very small. Someone who has mastered their desires most likely has larger periods of contentment.

It is also noting that contentment can be achieved without large amounts of happiness. As someone heavily influenced by Buddhism I do not believe that I am meant to be happy all the time. Life (Dukkha) does not work that way. I embrace it when I am happy and accept it when I am not. As such I achieve within my own perspective contentment.

For mine (and veering wildly off topic) I do not believe that all people seek happiness or alternatively subconsciously they do not. Most of us give happiness lip service as a sought after quality in life but from my perspective and observations people more often seek satisfaction or ratification of where they see themselves and as part of this how they should be treated in life. I think most of us have experience with people whom lurch from one disaster to another whether it is in finances, life, love or whatever. Some of us may have to one extent or another been that person. As such we are not seeking happiness or if we are then our strategy is flawed. We may however achieve satisfaction but not in a positive sense.

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Permalink Reply by JeffK on July 23, 2008 at 19:36

Yes, I know these people all too well, and have certainly been one of them at times!

I think you're spot on J, people take their eye off the ball in life and the seeking of happiness. They're too damn busy chasing short-term pleasures and don't put any time or effort into longer term happiness (as opposed to contentment, which I reckon is close to death - an acceptance of your lot in life rather than an attitude to take charge).

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Permalink Reply by Bandwidth on July 23, 2008 at 16:59

My two bobs worth :-)

Based on the following definitions hapinees is far more complex than contentment and to be content is only one form of the state of happiness

Contentment refers to the neuro-physiological experience of satisfaction and being at ease in one's situation, bodymind (cf. John Money[1]), body, and/or mind.

In Yoga (Yoga Sutras of Patanjali), movement or positions, breathing practices, and concentration, as well as the yamas and niyamas, can contribute to contentment (santosha).

In a Buddhist sense, it is the freedom from anxiety, want or need. Contentment is the goal behind all goals because once achieved there is nothing to seek until it is lost. A living system cannot maintain contentment for very long as complete balance and harmony of forces means death. Living systems are a complex dance of forces which find a stability far from balance. Any attainment of balance is quickly met by rising pain which ends the momentary experience of satisfaction or contentment achieved. Buddha's task was to find the solution to this never ending descent into dissatisfaction or Dukkha. The buddhist faith is based on the belief that he succeeded. Most religions have some form of eternal bliss or heaven as their apparent goal often contrasted with eternal torment or dissatisfactions.

The source of all mentally created dissatisfactions appears to stem from the ability to compare and contrast experiences and find reality as one is living it to be less than ideal. The solution is to seek out ways to either make experienced reality conform to the ideal or to lower expectations to the level of the experienced. When one can live in the moment with expectations in harmony with experiences one has achieved the greatest mental contentment possible. Variants of this pursuit are found in all religions and manifest in many forms of meditation and prayerful devotions.

Happiness is an emotion associated with feelings ranging from contentment and satisfaction to bliss and intense joy.

A variety of philosophical, religious, psychological and biological approaches have been taken to defining happiness and identifying its sources.

Philosophers and religious thinkers have often defined happiness in terms of living a good life, or flourishing, rather than simply as an emotion. Happiness in this older sense was used to translate the Greek Eudaimonia, and is still used in virtue ethics. In everyday speech today, however, terms such as well-being or quality of life are usually used signify the classical meaning and happiness is reserved for the felt experience or experiences that philosophers historically called pleasure.

Happiness forms a central theme of Buddhist teachings, which focuses on obtaining freedom from suffering by following the Eightfold Path. In the Buddhist view, ultimate happiness is only achieved by overcoming craving in all forms. Aristotle saw happiness as "the virtuous activity of the soul in accordance with reason," or the practice of virtue. In Catholicism, the ultimate end of human existence consists in felicity, or "blessed happiness", described by the 13th-century philosopher-theologian Thomas Aquinas as a Beatific Vision of God's essence in the next life.[1] One psychological approach, positive psychology, describes happiness as consisting of positive emotions and positive activities.

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Permalink Reply by Zed Berlin on July 24, 2008 at 0:43

Wow, thanks for all the brill responses. Looks like this is a theme that a lot of us are interested in. Looking forward to more views.
Z

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