Money is a means to obtain immense happiness. It is the medium one uses to secure housing, food, and the future ability to acquire the same without struggle. These are incredibly important things, and themselves sources of happiness.
The phrase "money doesn't make you happy" may be true--but it's misleading.
Money doesn't buy happiness, but it buys options. Options create greater opportunities for happiness.
A lack of money means a lack of options, which can put a hard limit on happiness. The hedonistic treadmill exists for sure, but that's a better place to be than drowning.
People can talk all they want about how simply being with family makes them happy, but certainly being with family at Disneyland beats being with family in your cramped apartment where you're having to choose between paying rent or being able to eat more than ramen and ketchup sandwiches.
You are responding to a statement that wasn't quite made.
We are talking about riches here, not transitioning from poverty to an upper-middle class income. What you say is absolutely true, but only up to a point, because money has diminishing marginal returns to happiness.
Why? Because of everything you state: it is unpleasant to have to think about how you'll feed and house yourself. But it does not require riches (in western living context) to be able to stop worrying about that.
Where money stops driving happiness varies by person, and by regional cost of living, but the research we have available suggests that it's not an extraordinarily high amount. Maybe $90k or so for most people.
But if you're making $150k, will having $10m in the bank make your life dramatically happier? The evidence suggests that no, it will not. That's when money fails to buy happiness.
>Because of everything you state: it is unpleasant to have to think about how you'll feed and house yourself. But it does not require riches (in western living context) to be able to stop worrying about that.
This is false. Let's look at at Brazil. The minimum wage is R$1212. According to DIEESE, the ideal minimum wage should be at least R$6000. This is a salary that would allow you not to worry about rent, food, recreation, education, transportation and overall a live a decent life.
If you are making R$6000, that puts you in the top 4% richest. Let that sink in, having a salary that allows you living with dignity means you're in the top 4%. Tell me again that riches are not required to live without worrying about food and housing.
Just for comparision, a senior software engineer in Brazil with 10+ years of experience is usually making something in between 8-15k/mo. That 15k/mo BRL salary is equivalent to 31k USD/year(assuming no taxes!).
I guess my point is that the USA does not fully represent the "western context", and people from first world countries usually have a very very skewed view on how life goes elsewhere.
Alternative possibility: According to DIEESE, the ideal minimum wage should be higher than what 95% of people make today and therefore they’ve got something wrong in their logic or their priors. Their conclusion is not economically realistic.
Yes, money can't make you happy, but the lack of it can make you miserable. That's true to a point. I've also met some people who were suffering from poverty that would make you cry, and they were the happiest, kindest, most loving people.
Money is a means to obtain immense happiness. It is the medium one uses to secure housing, food, and the future ability to acquire the same without struggle. These are incredibly important things, and themselves sources of happiness.
The phrase "money doesn't make you happy" may be true--but it's misleading.