Money Can Bring Happiness

"Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy." (1.^ Wordnet 3.0; http://www.google.com...) Notice that "happiness" is within the range of "contentment" to "intense joy." Every single things in the world which brings contentment or joy costs money, must be bought, and therefore, it is money which brings happiness. None of these things can be had without money being spent either by the person experiencing this happiness, or by others spending money so that they can be happy. For example, even people who are "contented" with sustanance and covering will realize that both food and shelter costs money. Turn on the news and watch people dying of starvation; do they look happy? The appear to be quite sad. When the worms of hungry brought on by extreme poverty are eating at people, they tend to smile less (or not at all). I certainly don't see them laughing when I turn on the T.V. and see their bones coming out of their chests. How many homeless people do we find acting extremely overjoyed? Not many. You can't be truely happy if you are constantly worried about what to eat and where to shelter or what to wear; and if you can't afford such things it is natural to worry. Con mentions a very rich man saying that he is unhappy, but surely it wasn't having money that made him unhappy. Thousands of quite happy individuals are rich, even amongst the very religious. Just because money brings happiness doesn't entail that once you have money there will not also be sources of sadness and misery that can rob us of that happiness. I think we need to establish the fact that there is more than one source of happiness, so let's not get into this "saint" nonsense about happiness coming "only' from God or religion. For example, marriage is a source of happiness. Many husbands can testify that their wives make them happy. But this doesn't mean they can't get sick, and that sickness burden the family can bring a measure of sadness. If this rich guy Con cited used his money wisely, it would not become a souce of unhappiness for him, just as we we have to use all other things in life wisely to derive the most joy from them. So if a man doesn't treat his wife well, she might make him very unhappy in the long run, so too, he must use his money to his best physical, financial, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual advantage. But such cannot be done unless one has the money to begin with. Christians claim to get their happiness from God, but let's be realistic, they need money to buy clothes to wear to church, and perfume to put on, deoderant, pay for hair-styling and so on. Even members of the church itself would make being there very unhappy for them or they might even be asked to leave if they were to turn up in rags every time church was in session, smelling like rotten eggs. They need money to pay their utility bills so they can bathe and be fresh from church meetings. What on earth can they learn about God in order to even get close to him when instead of listening to the pastor preach and looking up the Scriptures, they are are scratching all over because they didn't bathe and were itching. Thye also need money to buy a Bible is it isn't given away free at church, and even the church had to buy it, and before that it costs money to print. In fact, it cost money for the translators of many Bible versions to go to universities to study different languages and so on to become qualified to embark on Bible translation. Without money religions couldn't fund their preaching work, and so people wouldn't learn about God in order to draw close to him. Without money they would have to buildings for worship. So let's be realistic, religion cost's money; so even the happiness that comes from religion must be bought. Thus, money buys happiness. Marriage brings happiness, but the rings must be bought. The wedding is an expensive affair. All the things we like, favorite foods, movies, music, sports, all costs money. We tend to feel better psycologically when we have money in out hands than when we are broke. So let's not kid ourselves. Sure, they are some poor people who appear to be quite satisfied with life; but really, even the little they do have costs money. There is "some level" of money they "must" have in order to maintain that happiness. This debate isn't about if being "rich" makes you happy; but rather, if "money" brings happiness. Whatever it is you want to achieve in life to make you happy, you need money to get there, and without that amount of money, you can't be happy. Even if Con could show us that they are people who can be happy without money, this would not prove that money is not a source of happiness. To illustrate, surely there are many single people who are happy, does that mean that marriage is not a source of happiness? No. One thing is for sure, poorness doesn't bring happiness at all. A husband and wife bickering over how to spend their last hundred dollars is not what I call a happy marriage. Con says that money is just paper with something printed on it, but so are books, and yet look at how much joy people get out of reading novels, or religious texts like the Bible, poetry books, comics, and the list goes on. When a man writes a letter back home to his wife saying "I love you, and I'm coming home tomorrow," after a long business trip, she smiles with joy - that paper with something printed on it sure did make her happy; likewise, money too may just be paper and ink, but when a man hands a check donation of one million dollars over to the church I'm sure the pastor is quite happy; when a man wins the lottery I'm sure it makes him quite happy, and I dare my opponent in this debate to receive a billion dollars and not smile from ear to ear like a little child on the happiest day of his life. The actor Con spoke of said "Everyone pretends to love me but they love my money," so is Con saying that we should strive to be poor so that people won't pretend to be our friends? It says in one of Con's links, "If money promises happiness, then why are the wealthiest people in the world also not the happiest people in the world?" http://www.richardslavin.com... But what statistical data does he give to back that up? Was a survey done asking all the rich people how happy they were on a scale of 1 to 10? And let me ask, does the survey also show that the poorest people in the world are the happiest? I'm sure that if you were to ask a set of 1000 very rich people how happy they were and 1000 poverty stricken, homeless, hungry, sick people who happy they were on a scale of 1 to 10, the rich would definitely fair better in terms of whose happier. Don't believe me? Pick your random homeless person and ask him when was the last time he had fun. Hard to do that when you can't afford medication. But I never claimed rich people are the happiest, for I never claimed they are not greater sources of happiness out there than money; so it's very deceptive of your source to ask why the richest aren't the happiest, as if that was ever a claim they made. Just because married people aren't the "happiest" people on earth, does that prove marriage can't bring happiness? Marriage and money bring happiness even if other things do a better job of making one happy. My argument is against those who claim money can't make you happy at all. And how does one measure happiness anyway? What is your definition of "happiest"? What statistical proof do you have to show that another source makes people "happier" than money? I look forward to Con's response.