"Money Doesn't Buy Happiness", part 2
Last week I wrote about the "Money Doesn't Buy Happiness" canard. I called it a canard because while it's literally true in the strictest sense- happiness is not a good that can be bough and sold- its widely understood meaning is grossly misleading to the point of being functionally false. Money may not literally buy happiness but, in a mature capitalist system such as ours, it's necessary for the basics of life. As I explained, try being happy without adequate food, shelter, clothes, or health care!
Or, to put it another way, one of the rejoinders I like to "Money Doesn't Buy Happiness" is "Money Doesn't Buy Happiness, but Poverty Doesn't Buy a Damn Thing!"
As canards go, "Money doesn't buy happiness" is a pretty big one. Basically much everyone (everyone who's fluent in conversational English, anyway) has heard it. Generally for a saying to become that widely known, and to endure for so many years, there has to be some sense, some particular context, in which it's true... or at least kind of true. It's got to have a kernel of truth somewhere inside, surrounded by qualifiers and clarifications that indicate that correct context- except nobody bothers with those because, let's face it, if it's too long for a bumper sticker, TLDR.
Here's how I'd rewrite the saying to make explicit the generally unwritten assumptions and qualifiers that make it true:
“More Money, past a certain point of basics being covered, Doesn't necessarily Buy Increase Happiness*”
*because once you've got the basics covered then things like purpose in life, self determination, and connections to other people start to become at least as important as increased material wealth
Read the fine print of what I wrote (yeah, that's quite a bumper sticker!) and what you'll see is that the proper use of "Money Doesn't Buy Happiness" is as advice to people who are already wealthy. Indeed, that's the substance of many of the advice articles and self-help books about why people shouldn't worry about wealth. They're full of anecdotes about envy, lifestyle inflation, etc. How once you can afford a vacation home, a boat, or a yacht you're not necessarily happy because there's always someone with a bigger vacation home, a bigger boat, a bigger yacht... or two yachts!
Well, you know what? That's great advice for people who can afford vacation homes and yachts. It's advice for the 1%. There's not enough money in targeting books and articles at just 1% of the country, though. Thus we get them pointed at the broad middle the the US, the middle and working classes.
Along with that shift in the target market comes a shift in how the advice is framed. Instead of being a self-help tip to avoid overindulgence it becomes a ridiculous sour-grapes canard. "Oh, poor people and those struggling to get by, you don't really want wealth. Rich people are miserable, too!"
Or, to put it another way, one of the rejoinders I like to "Money Doesn't Buy Happiness" is "Money Doesn't Buy Happiness, but Poverty Doesn't Buy a Damn Thing!"
As canards go, "Money doesn't buy happiness" is a pretty big one. Basically much everyone (everyone who's fluent in conversational English, anyway) has heard it. Generally for a saying to become that widely known, and to endure for so many years, there has to be some sense, some particular context, in which it's true... or at least kind of true. It's got to have a kernel of truth somewhere inside, surrounded by qualifiers and clarifications that indicate that correct context- except nobody bothers with those because, let's face it, if it's too long for a bumper sticker, TLDR.
Here's how I'd rewrite the saying to make explicit the generally unwritten assumptions and qualifiers that make it true:
“More Money, past a certain point of basics being covered, Doesn't necessarily Buy Increase Happiness*”
*because once you've got the basics covered then things like purpose in life, self determination, and connections to other people start to become at least as important as increased material wealth
Read the fine print of what I wrote (yeah, that's quite a bumper sticker!) and what you'll see is that the proper use of "Money Doesn't Buy Happiness" is as advice to people who are already wealthy. Indeed, that's the substance of many of the advice articles and self-help books about why people shouldn't worry about wealth. They're full of anecdotes about envy, lifestyle inflation, etc. How once you can afford a vacation home, a boat, or a yacht you're not necessarily happy because there's always someone with a bigger vacation home, a bigger boat, a bigger yacht... or two yachts!
Well, you know what? That's great advice for people who can afford vacation homes and yachts. It's advice for the 1%. There's not enough money in targeting books and articles at just 1% of the country, though. Thus we get them pointed at the broad middle the the US, the middle and working classes.
Along with that shift in the target market comes a shift in how the advice is framed. Instead of being a self-help tip to avoid overindulgence it becomes a ridiculous sour-grapes canard. "Oh, poor people and those struggling to get by, you don't really want wealth. Rich people are miserable, too!"