American Multimillionaire Sociology

Leading a life without much money does not entail that one has very little happiness. Happiness itself is a very broad and abstract term that is influenced by various aspects of life. Begley’s statistical data from the global survey provided evidence to the fact that there is more to happiness then just money. She established a comparison between American multimillionaires and people from the rural areas of Kenya and Greenland. Shockingly both groups from the opposite spectrum of the “money train” responded to the survey with the same average score of happiness. A third and more striking part of this survey was that homeless people of Calcutta reported a low happiness level score. We can understand why multimillionaires may be happy and satisfied

If we analyze the data Begley presented we can see that people from major cities such as Calcutta and those in America have built a very solid connection with money and happiness inside their heads. This is because society and media has strongly persuaded them into believing these two are linked. Everyone is always concerned about making money in the fast-paced modern world because they are fooled into thinking they need large amounts of money to be happy This ideology is beyond the fact if they actually need it or not. People are so obsessed with money in these areas that they feel powerless without it. They have become utter fools and have fallen prey to the trap society has set. Namely this trap is to make them think they cannot survive without a lot of money, so they should do anything and everything they can to make as much of it as possible. Hence, in cases when people do not make much money and are from areas that have been industrialized and modernized, like the homeless from Calcutta, they are evidently leading a less satisfied life. The point is that these people are deluded into believing that there is nothing more to happiness then money. Therefore, people from major cities are always in a constant battle to make more money so that they can be “happier”, or so they

These people are sheltered from the previously mentioned dangerous ideology and have far more reasons to be happy then one can imagine. The very existence of such people prove Begley’s point that there is more to happiness then money and that the connection between the two is just a deluded fantasy. These Masai of Kenya and Inuits of northern Greenland lead a modest life with little or no luxury. However, their definition of luxury is completely different because they are not involved in rapid economic or industrial growth. Even though these people barely have electricity or even running water, because they are not exposed to the extravagance of the urban world, they still exhibit the same amount of happiness as the rich folk from modern, high end civilizations. These people are not the fools and to them the word luxury has a much deeper meaning than just money. To them luxury does not necessarily mean an abundance of material possessions gained by money. Their mediocre lives are laden with happiness and contentment as they psychologically relate these two with things that are beyond money. Such things vary like having a loving family, your closeness to nature or animals, personal attitude towards life, or even joy found in everyday