When asked the question “can money buy happiness?” many will hesitate before saying yes. Indeed, money has evolved into being something very valuable especially within the contemporary society. I mean, who doesn’t want to get rich? I want to be rich and I believe your feelings and mine regarding money are mutual. Recent studies have found a correlation between money and happiness. However, that is not all, a substantive body of research has also confirmed that money can raise the level of happiness to a certain point. Therefore, it is appropriate to not that even though money can buy happiness, it is appropriate to note that money cannot buy money entirely but only to a certain point.
When a person lands a deal worth a ton of money, they get excited and happiness is the outcome. Also, when your salary is raised, a smile is always expected meaning money has a direct correlation with happiness. However, concluding that money can buy happiness will be a subjective form of thinking and conclusion. This is a form of hasty generalization that many people have fallen victims. What many people fail to incorporate in their thinking is that money raises standards and with higher standards comes new and more responsibilities. Due to these additional responsibilities, money will always not be enough and that is why richest people are the ones waking up in the wee hours of the morning to look for more money.
Recently, the US Congress voted to pass the bill on stimulus. In March this year, the president, Joe Biden signed a stimulus package in an effort to mitigate the fallout from the COVID-19 and help the economy grow. According to an article by financial times, the stimulus package includes a new round of means tested direct payments of up to $1,400 for American adults, a weekly top up to $300 in federal unemployment benefits and $350 billion to help the state and local government and expanding tax credits for children.
Even though the bill passed, it is worth noting that it narrowly passed with 220 votes to 211. This denotes the fact that the debate on whether money can buy happiness is 50/50. It is entirely certain that the money is very helpful especially during the time of crisis. However, the republicans who voted against the bill were not entirely wrong considering the fact that the stimulus package can have long-term consequences to the economy due to the high spending.
Summing up, it is apparent that money is good as it eliminates or rather reduces a lot of problems. However, money is not the only source of happiness. Moreover, there are some things that are above money for instance chronic diseases, family, true friendship among others. Such things, cannot be bought with money but they also have significant impact to happiness.
