Gilbert Money And Happiness

In Daniel Gilbert’s thought provoking book, stumbling on happiness, he makes the claim, “rich kings are no happier than poor beggars” (174). The idea that money cannot buy happiness has been bouncing off the main stream media for a while now. Although this belief surrounds us, and our surroundings impact the way we think, but in this case I would have to disagree with Gilbert and others who claim the same. Money does buy happiness when it is spent on the right things, making the “green paper” not so useless after all. People who don’t think that money can buy happiness are either not spending it right, or were born into immense wealth and have not been through the struggle of making ends meet. If people were to spend money in order to “create

Gilbert’s argument is that an individual needs only enough money to put one out of abject poverty into middle class, even a dollar above that would be nothing but an “increasingly useless pile of paper.” Even if you’re out of abject poverty into the middle class, that still doesn’t mean that one has reached the level financial security. Simply reaching the middle class doesn’t necessarily mean that you have some kind of savings that can be used in the time of an emergency, or a catastrophic event. The following UK-based research, where the customers of a major bank were the participants, reports suggested that “having a buffer of money available in checking and savings accounts confers a sense of financial security” which leads to a higher level of life satisfaction (Ruberton 579), therefore confirming the fact that having more money than you need can bring happiness. Having cash in hand leads to an increased sense of financial security as if there is an emergency, you don’t necessarily have any problem, as of course in today’s world money is what matters the most. Also, in the case of losing employment one would need money to fund oneself until new employment is found, or if you went to school and have a degree, which also costs money, you can get another job. With a

Money wouldn’t mean anything if it is just sitting in the bank account. People should buy experiences, or donate their money rather than focusing too much on acquiring more once they have reached the secured level. Considering the example of food which Gilbert used to make a point in his book, food stops pleasing us when we have had enough of it, but with money we just want more and more no matter how much we already have. In order to achieve happiness, people, need to spend accordingly, plan a vacation, go out with family, try a new cuisine even for that matter. Happiness will not come knocking on your door when you are rich, but instead you have to go out and work for