Relationship Between Money and Happiness

Preface First, people could not be without money. That is, if people out of money, people have no happiness lives with. Money is the foundation of live, for if there is no money, people cannot survive. If people cannot survive, how can there be happiness at all. Second, money is not everything. Most of the happiness could not be brought by money. For example, Bill Gates cannot enjoy the happiness of escape from a disaster, cannot enjoy the happiness of be a world champion, cannot enjoy the happiness of win the gold medal, cannot enjoy the happiness of families reunion, cannot enjoy the happiness of be a president. Money only slightly associated with happiness In fact, when people have enough of money, the happiness people gain become less and less. It is majority people unexpected, but this is the fact that Western countries live for decades. Experts in the West confirmed a fact: â€Å"If you made a graph of American life since the end of World War II, every line concerning money and the things that money can buy would soar upward, a statistical monument to materialism. Inflation-adjusted income per American has almost tripled, such as per capita income, real income, lifetime, housing area, the per capita car number, the number of telephone calls each year, the number of trips per year, the highest degree IQ scores. No matter how you chart the trends in earning and spending, everything is up, up, up. But if you made a chart of American happiness since the end of World War II, the lines would be as flat as a marble tabletop. Almost everything is getting better, but people did not feel happier. Yale University political science professor Robert †¢ Portland found that if you charted the incidence of depression since 1950, the lines suggest a growing epidemic. Money jangles in our wallets and purses as never before, but we are basically no happier for it, and for many, more money leads to depression. Correlation between money and happiness- 0. 25 Many scholars have been extensive, large-scale sample survey concluded. Concluded that: money and happiness is not the way people think proportional, neither the happier the more wealthy people, the more money the less happy people. The relationship between them is minimal, with scholars jargon, the relationship between them is only â€Å"slightly positive. † The psychology of money, this book made a quantifiable figure on the relationship between money and happiness – † there have been a number of studies of this relationship, and they all come up with a correlation of about 0. 25 † This book use x-axis and y-axis, the mathematics way, visually describe the relationship between money and happiness: assuming that use y-axis draw the satisfaction of happiness, and use x-axis describe the amount of money. The intersection of two axes is the starting point of zero. And then make a mark on y-axis at 0. 25, which is limit value of the correlation between money and happiness. When people's incomes are low, the satisfaction of happiness is very low indeed. When people are without money, the satisfaction of happiness is almost close to zero. Once people just out of the poverty line, the curve which describe the relationship between money and happiness will rush up almost touch the 0. 25 line. And then quickly become a horizontal line at 0. 5 irrelevant with the x-axis. Even if the amount of money on the x-axis increasing in thousands, millions, or billions rate doubled, the relationship between money and happiness curve ignore it. The line will never exceed 0. 25. And the curve maybe fall to 0. 2, 0. 1 or lower level. In mathematics, this phenomenon is called â€Å"diminishing marginal effect. † Reasons for money and happiness curve diminished Through observation and study of happine ss, we can find that any happiness in the world has a premise which is desire. If people have no desire, people would not have happiness. So eager is only source of happiness. Desire is something people look forward, but do not get yet. So happiness is the pleasure when people are satisfied or say gets the thing which they look forwards. Furthermore, we can draw a conclusion, happiness (that is the source) is unrenewable. After we got a happiness, we can repeat to enjoy it, the desire will diminished, until disappear. This means people only have N times to enjoy the same type of happiness. For example, when people have learned how to ride bicycle, he will use it as much as possible, the happiness he get will increase. But when the time he ride bicycle reach to N, the happiness he get before will fall to zero. Because of happiness is non-renewable resources, so in the world of money and material, everyone has the limited resources of desire, and everyone has limited happiness to enjoy. For example, after we learned how to ride bicycle, and enjoy the happiness of ride bicycle, we will never enjoy it again. Along with our possession increase, our happiness will increase too. But the resources of happiness will diminish. It means the happiness we can enjoy will decrease. That is reasons for money and happiness curve diminished Conclusion They say money can't buy happiness, but it can facilitate it. —Malcolm Forbes Happiness is the desire for repetition. –Milan Kundera At the lower end of the income scale the better-off are happier; there is no effect from the middle of the scale onwards. And there has been no historical effect of increased national prosperity on happiness. There is evidence that people are happier of they think they are doing better than other people, or than they did themselves previously. Other sources of happiness are much more important, such as leisure, job satisfaction, social relations and personality. Money has very little effect on these, money people want to be rich or richer, and many take part in lotteries, no doubt in the belief that winning will make them happier. References