Money Cannot Buy Happiness, Essay Example

This essay will discuss the fact that money cannot buy happiness.  Yes, it is true that money cannot happiness however according to research; it can defend an individual from sadness.

Love cannot be bought by money and so is to happiness. Nevertheless, a person may be able to buy his or her happiness due to sadness. Research has established that wealthier persons feel much of sadness during their everyday activities. The except seems to add happiness to their poorer counterparts too. According to the research conducted by Kostadin Kushlev and his colleagues of the University of British Columbia, higher income tends to protect individuals from sadness rather than increasing happiness. These researchers argued that it was an error to view sadness and happiness as mutually exclusive opposites. They stated that since happiness is not just the deficiency of sadness, or the opposite, income may have an unlike relationship to both of those emotions (Money Can’t Buy Happiness – but It Can Protect from Sadness 1).

This investigation was done using information from 12,991 participants in the ATUS (American Time Use Survey) in 2010. Because the study also examined the welfare and household income of the participants, it gave Kushlev and his team an opportunity to observe the relationship that exists between the two.  The researchers establish that individuals who are wealthier reported feeling less sad, although income appeared to have no effect on daily happiness of the people even after controlling for variables such as stress levels, presence of a child under 18 in the household, ethnicity, education, employment and marital status, sex and age. Wealthier persons spent more time engaging in recreational activities and exercising according to the work of these researchers. There was no explanation given regarding the anti-sadness effects of higher income.

The study led by Michael Norton, Harvard professor, whose book “Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending” outlines a kind of roadmap to buying happiness by means of principles of smart spending.  However, the research by Norton also shows that the assumption individuals earning more money results to more happiness are just wrong.  For instance, people worth $10 million or $1 million are unhappy as their wealth augments. In fact, adding money to money may lead to experiencing smaller amount happiness (The Latest Science on Whether Money Can Buy Happiness 1).

In conclusion, we can observe that money do not buy happiness. However, it can help protect wealthier people from sadness. The more money an individual gets, the less happy he or she becomes.

Works Cited

“Money Can’t Buy Happiness – but It Can Protect from Sadness, Study Finds.” Raw Story. Web. 13 May 2015.

“The Latest Science On Whether Money Can Buy Happiness.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Web. 13 May 2015.