Can Money buy Happiness?

Kristina Wyman – Campus Life Editor

Hello ladies and gents, here is another column of thinking about things in depth. Well, to a point. This column is to get people thinking about topics we may not face often or topics we struggle with frequently. I think it is interesting to think about our views on certain topics, especially wellness and mood wise. This column could very well be an article, there is plenty of content and material to work with to expand upon the topic of happiness further, but alas, we are just jogging some thoughts. So, can you buy happiness?

I’ve had classes where we talk about this subject, and the topic is multidisciplinary. I can recall discussions on happiness from multiple psychology, English, philosophy, and theology classes. These areas of study are just a few of the personal ones where I’ve encountered this popular topic, but I bet you could discover it in plenty of other fields as well. Perhaps this is because we as humans are striving for this so called “happiness”. Other than basic primal needs, perhaps happiness is the next desired want we have. What is happiness anyway? This is quite the loaded question. Everyone has different thoughts and opinions, so this could be one of the most broad, answerless questions we as humans could think of.

Happiness can be derived from multiple avenues. The avenue in question for this short column though, is that of the relation between happiness and money. If you were to go out on the street and survey people, you would definitely find some people who will agree that money brings them happiness. With that extreme, you’ll also get people who say happiness is absolutely not about money, and the rest will fall somewhere in between the two polar ends.  Some people do find joy in shopping and it does bring them happiness, but most would admit it isn’t the only or most important thing that brings them happiness.

For me, happiness is having friends and family close in your thoughts, as well as having awesome support from those who you have met in your travels. I have had friends, some teachers, some professors, and other mentor figures come into my life and have enriched it. There are those teachers, professors, and mentors that go beyond the call of duty to support you in your path of life, and some can even become lifelong friends. With this being said, that is where I find my happiness; in friends, family, and those who are there for you and appear in your life when you need them most. My personal view of happiness looks a little like this, but what is yours? Everyone has different opinions to what equates to the most happiness for them. Happiness is a term that’s hard to define or categorize to even pin point what your happiness is, but we all have something more than materialistic needs that bring us the most of this “happiness” we speak of.

Kristina Wyman, a senior, studies English and Psychology. She is the Campus Life Editor of Le Provocateur.