5 ms·
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy less unhappiness. There's diminishing returns, of course, but I'd hazard it looks a bit like ln(n), in that the return
by thomascountz 4mo ago
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy less unhappiness. There's diminishing returns, of course, but I'd hazard it looks a bit like ln(n), in that the returns are quite significant in the beginning.
- tsunamifury 4mo agoAnd the remaining unhappinesses can end up in starker relief, as you continuously try to remove all unhappinesses from your life to nearly impossible and sometimes distorted degrees. The problem isn’t that money doesn’t buy happiness, it’s that it can remove your ability to endure the necessary amounts of unhappiness in life.
- the_mitsuhiko 4mo agoMoney can very much buy happiness. Most of the things that make you unhappy can be remedied with money. How much money you need to accomplish that depends though.
- Mond_ 4mo ago> Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy less unhappiness > Money can very much buy happiness. Most of the things that make you unhappy can be remedied with money Was it too hard to read beyond the first comma?
- cortesoft 4mo agoThe person you are replying to agrees that money can get rid of things that cause unhappiness. The point is that removing unhappiness is only part of what creates happiness, and money can’t buy the other part.
- sph 4mo ago> Most of the things that make you unhappy can be remedied with money Nonsense. Most of the things that can be remedied with money are not the truly painful things of life either. Will money save you from heartache? From the pain of losing a loved one? From being lonely? From having no respect from your peers? From losing your health to incurable cancer? At that point, all money can do for one is make them even more pathetic.
- hnlmorg 4mo agoI agree money doesn’t buy happiness, but money can go a long way to helping with those problems. For example, money can pay for better medical care.
- SoftTalker 4mo agoMoney won't cure pain and suffering (although it does make trial lawyers happy) but even there it can buy better care. But pretty much everything else in life is better and more enjoyable with more money. You can live in a nicer house, in a better neighborhood, with better schools, with better goods and services, with more things to do, etc. You can travel more, in a more comfortable style. You can support other projects, artists, charity, etc.
- Xirdus 4mo agoMore money absolutely does make it easier to have social life. It absolutely does make it easier to cure curable diseases as well as live the life to the fullest when you have incurable diseases. And increasing your wealth is strongly correlated with gaining respect of people who were born into similar backgrounds and socioeconomic conditions as you were. More cynically, wealth makes it both easier to attract a romantic partner (fixes loneliness) and harder for them to later leave you (prevents heartache). So, if you squint a little, money fixes 5 of the 5 listed problems.
- KerrAvon 4mo agoNone of that makes you happier. Define happiness, but there's a baseline for not being miserable (I have enough to eat etc) and then there's actual satisfaction with your life. If you doubt the thesis, consider the extreme examples of Musk and Trump. they have infinite wealth and power and are demonstrably, publicly miserable. The consistently happiest people I've personally met are Buddhist monks of various sects, who have nearly nothing in terms of money or physical possessions.
- zorobo 4mo ago> If you doubt the thesis, consider the extreme examples of Musk and Trump. they have infinite wealth and power and are demonstrably, publicly miserable. Trump/Musk without money would be more miserable I surmise.
- bryanlarsen 4mo agoUnhappiness and happiness are surprisingly orthogonal. Removing unhappiness does not make you happy, it makes you not unhappy[1]. Being not unhappy is a requirement for happiness, but it's not sufficient. 1: not unhappy is weird phrasing. Substitute not sad or not angry or not hungry or whatever for your particular state of unhappiness.
- gr8painz 4mo ago[dead]
- Capricorn2481 4mo agoI don't think so. The original comment said reducing unhappiness leads to happiness with diminishing returns. This one said they are two different things.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- tetha 4mo agoThe terms I've learned to use is rather: Happiness, and Stressors. If you need your car to earn money, and you don't have the money or other resources to repair it if it breaks - that's a huge uncertainty and a huge source of stress and worry. Liquid funds can remove that source of stress. More drastic examples would include rent or food. That's why liquid funds can remove impediments and distractions from your life, but once all of those are gone, then what?
- trollbridge 4mo agoI own my home and land, could in a fairly straightforward fashion produce enough food to feed ourselves (although we don't choose to 100% rely on that), and have quality barter type relationships to repair vehicles, and technically could get by just fine with a bicycle for 95% of our transportation needs (although we don't choose to do that either). Nonetheless, there are more stressors from other things that come along with that... like making personal choices to assist other people with housing, food, and transportation needs, because that's just what you kind of do when you've taken care of that for yourself but you see people around you with various kinds of needs.