[NathanRice]

This article is bullshit. Money can't buy achievement. Money can't buy competence. Money can't buy respect. Money can't buy love. Money can't buy wisdom. Money can't buy knowledge. Money can't buy creativity.

The things that make people truly happy are internal, and must be constructed by the person experiencing them. Money can remove discomfort or provide passing distraction from existential malaise, but it can never make you truly happy.

[xyzzyz]

Money can't buy achievement. Money can't buy competence. Money can't buy respect. Money can't buy love. Money can't buy wisdom. Money can't buy knowledge. Money can't buy creativity.

Of course they don't sell these things in shops, but with money, you can create really good environment for yourself to pursue them.

Oh, and money sure can buy achievement and respect. You can enroll in best schools or hire best teachers with money to get knowledge and competence. It's easier to find love if you have money, for a wealthy man seem to be more attractive for women. I could go on, but the point is, don't downplay the value of money.

[NathanRice]

Hiring good teachers and going to good schools only provides an environment slightly more conducive to success. Motivated people can succeed without these things, and the prodigal will fail despite them. These things are mainly valuable to those around the median of intelligence/motivation distribution.

It is easier to find a relationship with money. The person you are in a relationship with will love your money, and tolerate you. Women do love successful/capable men, but in my experience it is the success that is attractive, not the money. As an example, a bankrupt but famous actor or rock star will massively out-compete a rich hedge fund manager. This definitely isn't just about looks, I once met a very attractive girl who waxed poetic about her desire to thoroughly ravish Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

[xyzzyz]

And what exactly is your point? Obviously it's easier to be pretty if you were born pretty, but with money you can buy cosmetics and/or a surgery, and without money you're hopeless. Obviously you cannot just buy yourself into being a famous and respected actor, but you still will massively out-compete many competitors. Obviously it is possible to succeed without going to good schools, or having good teachers, but it's much, much harder.

I wasn't suggesting that money is always the best solution, but frequently it's a really good, or at least good enough one. More importantly, it's quite general solution that will get lots of your problems solved, which is not the case with being bankrupt famous actor.

[NathanRice]

It is true that if you were born hideously disfigured, money can get you out of that jam (to some degree, anyhow). I feel that the common thread here is that money can be a huge boon to those who are impaired in some way, and is nice to have in general, but there are rapid diminishing returns with regard to happiness. I agree with the sentiment that you should take care of yourself and provide for your loved ones, just don't lust after money for its own sake or neglect the finer things in life because of it.

My experience (having gone to a good school) is that the most valuable thing they have to offer is contacts. The actual education is vastly overrated. The bulk of my knowledge came from figuring out a problem I wanted to solve, then learning everything that was required to solve it.

[coopdog]

I've always said if I was loaded and single I'd pretend to be poor until I found the right girlie

Then it'd be like.... surprise : )

[vbtemp]

Well, my friend, money can't buy happiness, but a lack of money will sure as hell buy you a lot of misery. Have you ever experienced struggle paying for rent and basic medical care (and living in pain, or with someone in pain, while scrambling to afford it)?

As the article says "Money allows people to live longer and healthier lives, to buffer themselves against worry and harm, to have leisure time to spend with friends and family, and to control the nature of their daily activities". These are very much necessary preconditions to be happy.

[anamax]

> "Money allows people to live longer and healthier lives, to buffer themselves against worry and harm, to have leisure time to spend with friends and family, and to control the nature of their daily activities". These are very much necessary preconditions to be happy.

Yes, but money isn't the only way to achieve them.

There's an apocryphal story about a guy who goes on a fishing trip and tells the guide that he enjoyed it so much that he's going to go home and make a lot of money so he can go fishing every day. The take-away being that the fishing guide is doing just that. (Yes, there's more to being a guide than fishing, but a fishing-bum lifestyle doesn't cost that much.)

"Life" has a burn-rate. Is yours going for things that matter to you?

[frankc]

There is also plenty of research that shows once your rewards are extrinsic instead of intrinsic, you do not enjoy the activity as much. That means once it's a job instead done for the sheer enjoyment, it stops becoming enjoyable.

[coopdog]

It's been well known in HR for a long time that money is just a 'hygienic' factor. Pay your employees too little and they'll be bitter, but paying them too much doesn't make them more motivated or more loyal in the absence of other positives.

You pay them enough, and then make sure they have rewarding work, a supportive environment and a boss who understands and empowers them. Money is just the start

[scott_s]

How much of it did you read? They go into things like when people spend money on charitable causes, they tend to be happier with the purchase than when they spend it on material goods. One of the take-aways is: spend money on thing which will promote the internal happiness that you mentioned.

[NathanRice]

Giving a gift to someone buys you their attention for a period of time, and some degree of positive predisposition under circumstances of ambiguity. Respect still has to be developed based on observation of character and discernment of intent. A rich heir who gives to generously and has a negative character is probably attempting to buy influence or assuage a guilty conscience. A guy buying drinks for every attractive girl in a bar is probably slimy. Those acts have no payoff unless someone responds in the manner that the act was performed to induce.

My hypothesis here is that the happiness is coming from creation and strengthening of interpersonal connections as a result of post giving interaction, not from the act of giving itself. I would be interested in studies where someone spent money on others in versus themselves without the opportunity for interaction or feedback upon giving. I suspect that would confirm my hypothesis.

[uberPhil]

Not sure why you getting downvoted. It appears that anyone with an opinion which is not inline with the general consensus gets downvo... Nevermind..

In any case, I think the idea that true happiness comes from within, which I think is what your describing, makes sense. True happiness cannot be manufactured by buying "experiences". I don't think a laundry list, created by someone other then you, of things to do with your money can make you happy with yourself. If your not happy with yourself nothing you experience will just make you happy.

It starts with you and I'm not sure that money can buy you internal happiness.

A better idea would be to find out how people without money are able to be truly happy. I'd love to see that list...

[NathanRice]

The internet is a quixotic place.

I have known homeless artists, poets and musicians who were much happier than some very wealthy people I've met. Creative endeavors are the most common, with lots of genuine friendships being high on the list as well.

[lutorm]

Not sure why you getting downvoted

Because he takes a scientific study based on actual data, calls it "bullshit", and substitutes his own pet theory of happiness, maybe?

[NathanRice]

Their whole hypothesis is that money can buy happiness, but there is a weak correlation because people have poor consumption patterns, and if people just had better consumption patterns, money would correlate strongly with happiness. There are a couple of assumptions baked into this hypothesis that I can tear apart on the spot:

1. This assumes that consumptive happiness is additive and unbounded, i.e. if consuming A makes you X points happier, and consuming B makes you Y points happier, consuming A and B makes you (X + Y) happier, ad infinitum. There is no evidence of this, and this is such a strong assumption that to assume it in the absence of evidence is fallacious.

2. Their data surrounding giving does not control for interpersonal interactions, and personality characteristics. Since these two variables are both strongly confounding, their results are weak at best.

Beyond that, this is a review paper containing no new data. They are essentially taking isolated data points and playing connect the dots to generate their own pet hypothesis.

My "pet theory" of happiness is actually the distillate of the idea of happiness as established in a variety of neutral literature (from Aristotle to moderns like Layard and Lyubomirsky), informed to a degree by evolutionary biology. Do you really trust the impartiality of people publishing in journals for "Consumer Psychology"? That reminds me of health studies commissioned by cigarette companies.

Down-vote away, it only saddens me to the degree that it makes people less likely to be exposed to a dissenting but informative viewpoint. I don't care a whit for the popularity contest aspect of it.

[gk1]

Because he is arguing a strawman. The article is not about buying experiences, but about spending money on or for the benefit of others.

[neutronicus]

Nor do rockets grow on the moon, but going to the moon is a decent goal for a man or woman interested in rocketry.