Sophie Zhang

Maybe Money Can Buy Happiness…

What has our society become? We have become increasingly materialistic and crude as a society.1 Here, a satirical2 view on what happiness really is:

Whoever said money cant buy happiness isnt spending it right. Its as simple as a bit of bumper-sticker3 wisdom. Growing up, many of us are educated by our teachers and by our parents not to let money be the key behind our satisfaction. This idea has been around for so long, said so often, and drilled into our heads so much, that it has become cliché4. Its almost become common knowledge5, part of peoples everyday values. Most of us know to try to seek happiness in other places, through relationships and family, rather than through materialism. But as much as we try to stand strong by our moral values and insist that materialism isnt vital6 to leading happy lives, the truth is, our fascination with money continues to grow. We live in a materialistic society, surrounded with news and blogs of Wall Street, TV shows dedicated to the lives of the rich and famous. Weve become a generation focused on things, because money has started being the key to our happiness. If we think of what makes us happy in life, money is almost always there. All the people we look up to—celebrities, businessmen—their careers and their lives revolve around money in some way.7 Bill Gates8 is first known as the richest man in the world, known as Microsofts chairman second. Our obsession with money has only been amplified in the past decade,9 as the opportunities to earn and spend it continue to increase rapidly. Money has become everything. How can we really be anybody without it? As our society seems to have caught on, money opens doors and helps us achieve goals and when we get what we want, we are happy. Money brings us this happiness by fulfilling our own materialistic and emotional needs.

What is the purpose of getting a good education and trying to get into a good college? Besides broadening our views and expanding the widths of our knowledge,10 the truth is, most of us simply want to get a good job and be successful. The word “success” in terms of career can be seen as equivalent to “high salary” to most. A high salary is a reflection of a businesspersons status, of their power, of how hard they work. How much money is earned reflects the status of success. It can simply be defined by how many figures they earn. Most people see Bill Gates and Warren Buffett11 as successful not because of the achievements they have brought to the technology and business world, but because of the mass amount of money in their bank accounts. Were spending our whole lives educating ourselves and training ourselves in the art of how to become“successful”. We spend so much time working to make money, because we believe that if we have nice houses, nice cars, and are able to support our families, well be happy. And its true. We cannot deny the fact that money brings our happiness in life when we spend and dedicate most of it to training ourselves to make it and to make a lot of it. If money didnt make us happy, we wouldnt continuously be seeking more than we actually need, and devoting half our lives preparing ourselves to do so.

Would you be happy if you were poor? Sometimes we take our money for granted12. We believe that itll always be there, and because most of us havent experience total poverty, we begin to take it for granted, and dont fully appreciate the joy it brings us. But take it away, and we are able to see the happiness it brings us more clearly. Recently, the financial crisis and the beginnings of a recession13 has had a major impact on the living standards of people across the globe, and specifically, on the overall happiness level of Americans, where the recession is hitting. A survey taken by the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index14 in 2008 after the economic crisis hit, showed that 60% of Americans are suffering and struggling due to financial issues, compared to 60% of Americans reported as “thriving” in 2006, before the economic crash, showing that people become unhappy without their money, to the point of reporting themselves as “suffering”, the lowest rank on the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. And even outside the economic crisis, a survey taken by researchers at the University of Nottingham in 2006, with jackpot15 winners who have won more than 1 million dollars revealed that 97% of the people were happier after the win, showing that the significant gain of money made a dramatic increase in the overall happiness level of people.

We often argue that money cannot buy love. However, nowadays, it can. Would you want to marry a person who could not support you financially? Although you may love each other unconditionally16, you would be struggling in all other areas, and so could you truly be happy? According to a survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal in 2007, the majority of both men and women look for financially sound17 partners as a major aspect when looking for a partner. Over three fourths of women surveyed said they look for a partner with money and an overwhelming18 majority of men agreed. Although its against the notions of love in our moral sense, and supposedly against the main motivations of affection, people have begun to seek what truly makes them happy in life, money, first, even before true love. Furthermore, once people have money, then they are able to seek other things in life, specifically…love and marriage. According to the same survey taken by the University of Nottingham, only about half of winners were married before the win, versus19 three fourths afterwards, a significant jump.

Money is such an important aspect of some peoples happiness, they cannot live without it. When they get themselves into debt, or even when they have a significant lack of it, their lives take a considerable drop. For example, recently, the businessman and investment advisor, Marcus Schrenker, went so far as to fake his death when debts began to pile up around him.20 He crashed his plane and then secretly parachuted21 away, leading the world to believe that he was dead. However, he was recently found, alive and healthy. Before the debts, he was reported to have a luxurious and happy life. However, when the source behind all of this luxury, money, was taken away, upon the knowledge that his enterprise was crumbling, Schrenker fell apart. Materialism is the sole fuel to some peoples happiness, to the point of extreme devastation when it is taken away.22 For Schrenker and many other people, income was not only a method of survival, it also provided a sense of security. Once that was gone, he no longer had that sense of security, lost his happy and luxurious life, and lost control.

Money being able to buy us happiness isnt being greedy or selfish. Even enormously wealthy people give back to charity each year, benefiting others as well as themselves. Its simply the truth of our present society. If we think about the things that we enjoy, money is involved most of the times. Why have we trained to believe for so long that materialism cannot buy us happiness? There is no need to constantly deny it. Think about it. There is always something you want at any given23 moment, which will make you happier when you get it, whether it is a nice car, an expensive camera, or even a new video game. All of these things are obtained with money. For those people who have money but dont have happiness, they just havent bought it yet. ?

1. materialistic: 實利主義的，物質(zhì)主義的（含貶義），下文的materialism意為“實利主義，物質(zhì)主義”；crude: 粗俗的。

2. satirical: 含諷刺意味的，嘲諷的。

3. bumper-sticker: 保險杠貼紙（貼在汽車保險杠上的小標語，內(nèi)容幽默，常涉及政治或宗教話題）。

4. cliché: 陳詞濫調(diào)，老生常談。

5. common knowledge: 常識。

6. vital: 極重要的，必不可少的。

7. look up to: 欽佩，尊敬；revolve around:以……為目的，圍繞。

8. Bill Gates: 比爾·蓋茨（1955—），美國微軟公司的創(chuàng)始人。1995年到2007年的《福布斯》全球億萬富翁排行榜中，比爾·蓋茨連續(xù)13年蟬聯(lián)世界首富。2008年6月27日正式退出微軟公司，并把580億美元個人財產(chǎn)盡數(shù)捐至比爾與美琳達·蓋茨基金會。2011年9月，《福布斯》美國富豪榜發(fā)布，蓋茨以590億美元居首。

9. obsession: 癡迷；amplify: 放大。

10. broaden: 開闊；expand: 擴大，增加；width:寬度。

11. Warren Buffett: 沃倫·巴菲特(1930— )，全球著名的投資商，曾在2008年的《福布斯》排行榜上財富超過比爾·蓋茨，成為世界首富。

12. take sth. for granted: 認為……是理所當然。

13. recession: 經(jīng)濟蕭條。

14. Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index: 由（美國）民意測驗公司蓋洛普(Gallup)和健康管理公司健維（Healthways）共同編制的蓋洛普-健維幸福指數(shù)。

15. jackpot:（在碰運氣的游戲中可贏得的）頭獎，最高獎。

16. unconditionally:無條件地。

17. sound: 狀況良好的。

18. overwhelming: 巨大的，壓倒性的。

19. versus: 與……相比。

20. 背景：美國商人Marcus Schrenker因被起訴詐騙投資者的數(shù)百萬美元資金，制造了一起飛機失事假死案，此事后被警察發(fā)現(xiàn)。

21. parachute: 用降落傘降落。

22.fuel:刺激物，推動力；devastation:毀滅。

23. given:特定的。