Can money really buy happiness?

The relationship between money and happiness is the most interesting, most sensitive, and complicated arguments in the study of happiness. Money satisfies basic material needs, brings comfort, security, and gives people a sense of identity. Many revere it as a symbol of everything that is meaningful in life. This essay uses empirical evidence to argue whether money can buy happiness from a point of winning the lottery money – it tries to analyze whether the “if only I hit the lottery money,” statement holds any water.

Practically, money is associated with the acquisition of every valuable thing in life – a better car, better clothes, and more power. Money is only paper, what matters is what it can do. Many people believe winning the lottery can bring happiness multiplied by a thousand times, but it can also bring intense heartache, and people who try to rip off that money. According to Pienaar having a lot of money does not guarantee happiness (5); it can turn lives upside down, break relationships as a results of the strain, friendships come under pressure and sometimes fade away. However, if money acts as one of the attributes of happiness, then happiness will come (Zamber 318). Some people want money so they can acquire the things they desire in life, or maybe buy other people things to make them happy. The idea is identifying the real things money would do and whether those things would bring in happiness. It is overwhelming that lottery money brings happiness and improves the state of mental health. Happiness is an emotion – it is felt, not something that can be bought, it is defined as priceless, but if money can bring that emotional well-being then definitely money can buy happiness, if not then it is right to say money cannot buy happiness. 

Works cited

Pienaar, Pine. Characteristics of Successful People. , 2013. Print. Zamber, Jim. Climate Control: Inner Climate Affecting the Outer, 2013. Print.