[at-l] Can money buy happiness article

[datto_atl2 at yahoo.com (Datto)]

>> http://www.msnbc.com/news/926241.asp?0dm=H14JV

Let me preface this by saying I am known to enjoy nice
things. People have accused me of being head-strong on
buying only the very best when I buy something. So I am not
against buying things at all. Nor am I against people
acquiring wealth since I agree that wealth is one method
that can afford someone the *opportunity* for freedom if
they choose to recognize that opportunity and take
advantage of it.

One of the reasons people put so much over-emphasis on
money in their lives is that money is very easy to measure.
You can measure checkbook balance or calculate your net
worth. By whatever method you measure your money, you can
put a number to it. A person can then compare their own
number to another's amount or listen to experts and find
out if they're as 'successful' or as 'happy' or as 'free'
as they should be.

The article above talks about scientists measuring
happiness of people who'd won a million dollars in a
windfall. I suppose it's a matter of when the scientists
measured the winner's happiness -- right after winning the
money or a year or two later. There's a study on lottery
winners done by other scientists who asked a the lottery
winner how happy they were one year and two years after
winning the lottery big. More than two-thirds indicated
their lives had been turned upside down after two years --
they'd ended (or had them ended by their spouse) marital
relationships, were hounded by relatives and friends
wanting loans, that kind of thing. Oh sure, most had run
out and bought a new car, went on a cruise, bought their
mother a house, gave a bunch of money away to charity.
However, not very many of them indicated they were happy.
But when asked if they could go back to their old life
without the money none of them said they would give up the
money and go back if they could.

That is one of the part that is important to recognize --
the addiction of money. The feeling that via money,
happiness is possible, maybe for some the thinking is that
it's not only possible, it's guaranteed. The common,
cocaine-like attraction people have toward a big wad of
money.

Madison Avenue capitalizes on this emotion in such a
successful way. 'Your not near as cool unless you drive a
Lexus" (after all, people who drive a Lexus do fun things
in their lives like having the time to hike the Appalachian
Trail -- that's what the commercial says so it's got to be
true, right?).

In society, there is such an over-stimulation and
bombardment of 'how you should be, what you should do so
you can be happy'. Do this, don't do that, can't you read
the signs? The bombardment has become so common it's
accepted as the norm of modern life. Wake up, watch
television. Go to work and listen to the radio on the way
to and from work, come home, watch television. Lay in bed
and while falling asleep, watch television.

So some people (maybe most) in civilized, traditional
society scamper off for years to a pissant job they
dislike, working for some kind of corporate Nazi manager
(who's also unhappy) just so they can try to feel as good
as "those people on the TV that own the _____ that the
television guy indicated would make me happy."

Some eventually get the money to buy the ______ and they're
happy for a few days, maybe a week or two, and...then what?
All that work to get the ______ and after a few days
they're back to feeling the way they were before they'd
bought the ____, unsatisfied, unfulfilled, restless about
something but they don't know what it is.

The people I know in this cycle of
get-money-so-they-can-be-happy are very intelligent -- good
problem solvers. So why do they continue to chase the
golden ring on the merry-go-round? Because the short
sensation of happiness is what they know -- they get the
money, they buy the ______ and they feel good and cool for
a while. Then the feeling is diminished and it's on to
acquiring the next ______. That's how life is, that's what
life is all about, right? The person who dies with the most
toys wins, right?

Ever seen the movie 'Joe Versus The Volcano" with Tom
Hanks? The scene in the beginning of the movie where Joe is
at his desk with the annoying fluorescent light flickering
on the ceiling above him. What great symbolism of what the
lives of many in society has become. If you haven't seen
the movie, it's a good one to rent over a weekend while
you're spending your valuable weekend watching television.

One of the beautiful things about a thru-hike of the
Appalachian Trail is an individual, for an extended period
of time, can escape almost all of the barrage of
over-stimulation from society and have a chance, if they
choose, to focus on basic thought. Along the way of
intelligent thought, most will acquire a hightened sense of
awareness -- an awareness that is completely drowned out
back in traditional society. A change in (or realization
of) what is important for that particular person -- not
necessarily what society says should be important but what
that individual has reasoned, after considerable thought,
what is important to them.

For those of you who are into financial planning, there's a
book out there that I read a long time ago that talks about
some aspects of this same subject from a financial
perspective -- namely, happiness and money. The book is
titled, "Your Money Or Your Life". Here's the Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140286780/qid=1056211938/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-0547155-8716020

You don't have to take everything in that book as gospel
but I'm sure those who are into finanical planning would
certainly find the perspective of the author interesting.

Datto


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