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CEFR B1
Intermediate
THESIS: Money is essential for happiness
Can money buy happiness? Are people who earn 2 dollars a day sad? According to some statistics, half of the world’s population live on less than $2 a day. What is their life like? Can a person in India, for example, who earns $2/day live a happy and satisfying life? Or maybe the poverty standards are set by people who think luxury is the only mode of happiness?
VIEW A
Money is definitely not essential for happiness. As long as your basic amenities – food, shelter, clothing are provided you can live a happy and satisfying life. Moreover, aren’t the most important things in life – family, community, love – for free?
VIEW B
Money is essential for happiness, full stop. It’s almost non-negotiable that only having accumulated enough wealth, one can secure their future. Having money allows us not only to live fully but also to practise generosity which is a source of happiness in itself, isn’t it?
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People always wondered if money can buy you happiness. There is no simple answer but if I had to choose which side I would be in favour of, I would go for YES.
I’m my modest opinion, money in 90% of cases is the easiest way to make our life more comfortable, interesting and just happy.
I will try to put a few arguments that stand for this thesis.
First of all money guarantee us safety. If you do not have to think how to secure the most basic needs it takes out of your head lots of everyday worries.
Having a nice house, nice car, nice holiday also make you happier. Things in our life that we can buy are so called
happy makers and this is well known truth.
I do not negate that without money you cannot be happy, I just say that money allows us to be happier.
Being a materialist with a thick purse is an easier way.
– Piotr
Some people believe that 50% of divorces cause by arguing over money.
To my way of thinking, money is crucial to be happy.
First of all, having enough money guarantees us safety. Wealth secures comfortable life. For example, when you are in the money, you have easier access to treatment and medical aid.
Secondly, money is essential for raising children in the contemporary world. When you are broke, it’s not possible to get for your children good education.
Last but not least, travelling is easier for wee-off people. I love travelling. It gives me a lot of happiness. You can visit money beautiful places, learn about local customs & cuisine, as well as make friends with people around the world.
In spite of the above, I understand that people can have different opinion on this. It depends on places where you live, needs and availability of goods and services.
I can see that there are places on Earth where 2$ can be sufficient to live. To recap for me live is not possible with decent money. It can affect safety child care and health.
– Justyna
Nowadays money is very important, especially if you look after children. Education, different activities, even clothes and food – all of that requires money. I agree that money brings safety. It’s easier to live when you have it.
But there is another side of it. Chasing after money can make us lose our happiness. We are working longer and longer. We do not have time for our family. We do not even have time to spend this money. When we are on holiday we are still thinking about company issues.
This year I saw my friend walking on the beach and constantly talking on the phone. He could not rest because the telephone was ringing almost all days. He has money but I doubt if he is happy.
In my opinion the most difficult is to keep the balance between the pursuit of money and private life.
– Monika M
If somebody asked me if money can buy happiness, I would say definitely: “NO!”.
Firstly, I think that happiness is a state of mind, which is totally independent of someone’s material status.
Secondly, you can be happy only if you really think and you really feel that you are happy.
There are a lot of definitions of happiness. I think that moments of happiness sometimes happen when we accept our current situation.
In spite of this, if you really need money to survive, money can bring you happiness at this moment.
To conclude, I think that “happiness is not for sale”. How much it costs? – from “0” to…infinity.
– Viola
In my opinion, money can buy happiness. What I mean by this is that people want to be safe, live in the right place and get good education. As regards safety, if you don’t have enough money, you don’t feel safe. Case in point, if an accident happens, it will be harder for you. Secondly, if you have enough money, you can live in a nice, spacious flat situated in a decent neighbourhood. Finally, if you are rich, you can get good education. For example, you can study abroad in some fancy university from the Ivy League.
Money cannot buy happiness, because money isn’t tangible, money can buy lots of things, but not every thing leads to happiness. There is no causation between money and happiness. But when we have money, we don’t need to focus on acquiring it in order to meet our basic needs.
If we earn big money, we get the best return, on condition that we give to other people – we spent time with our friends and family. One research published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology in 2011 concluded that people who have meaningful social connections are generally happier. It is especially true when we have bosom friends and can also enjoy being with them. And I have one more reason for money bringing happiness. It’s when money buys us free time. For example when we hire somebody to do our chores.
This is a difficult question if I wanted the answer to be the most appropriate for everyone. It is much easier to answer that considering just me.
I’m an extrovert focused on knowing, not having or feeling, and money doesn’t directly help with that. A basic income level is needed to take care of the essentials, but anything above is a tradeoff between time and money.
Being a person who knows nothing about everything, I tend to never have enough time to explore new topics… but the alternative to know everything about nothing is not attractive to me. The choices we make have consequences. Professionals usually have more money, but must rely on others for anything beyond their field of expertise. I would not be satisfied with such a situation. Taking that into account, following a specialist approach, and having more money, would make me less happy.
Saying all above, there is a tendency to mix knowledge from quite different fields, and my approach may make a difference in that case.
More money never hurts, especially if it is obtained as a by-product of other, fun (at least for me) activities.
TO recap, it is less a question for me about whether money buys happiness, but more about what it takes to get what you want to buy. Easy money brings you quick happiness, but long-term suffering, doing what you like and even love while earning money is the best way to be happy.