Preserving America's Quality Of Life

How often do you wake up worrying about money? How often do your loved ones worry about money? How often have you heard, “if only I had the money?” How often do you feel that more money would solve all your problems and would make you happy? What if I told you that you were right, to an extent. Author’s across the discussion of happiness have tried to answer the simply stated, yet complicatedly answered question, “Can Money Buy Happiness?” Authors Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diner attempt to answer the question in their piece of the same name, by explaining that “Yes, money buys happiness…but it must be considered in the bigger picture of what makes people genuinely rich” (Biswas-Diener 160-161). This idea that fiscal wealth is a path to happiness

In the article “Money: The Real Truth about Money” by Gregg Easterbrook published In Time Magazine (2005), the author compares two different generation’s attitudes towards money, and how it affects their happiness. The author’s standing qualifies him to write and appeal this issue, he’s a contributing editor of The Atlantic and The Washington Monthly, and he also writes the Tuesday Morning Quarterback column for ESPN.com. Easterbrook’s primary audience appears to be middle class Americans however he draws a wider secondary audience’s attention. The author succeeded in convincing his readers through his rhetorical appeals, credible sources and his clever use of language.

The texts, “High incomes don’t bring you Happiness” and “You can buy Happiness, if it’s an Experience”, completes the idea that monetary value does not bring true joy. In the passage, “High incomes don’t bring you Happiness”, the author states that bringing in an over excessive amount of money will not make one happy. The author said that an overall income of around $75,000 will complete one’s emotional well being, while anything over that will complete a life evaluation. Life evaluation is the idea that if one was to look at themselves while they’re in their deathbed, how would they rate their lifestyle. This is also supported through different statements within the passage, “You can buy Happiness, if it’s an Experience”. Within this study, it was proven that people enjoyed money, but often spent it on materialistic items which leaves them with a temporary feeling of satisfaction, while when they are given a fully paid trip to the Bahamas, the feeling of peace and joy lasts far longer than when they were to purchase an item of materialistic value. This

By changing the perception of all types of wealth, not just fiscal prosperity, multiple pathways to happiness become apparent. “When your

Members of every socioeconomic bracket can and do deluge themselves with products” (Hill,4). conclusion, we don’t need much stuffs. Rebuttal: “Intuitively, we know that the best stuff in life isn’t stuff at all, and that relationships, experiences and meaningful work are the staples of a happy life” (Hill,27). Because it shows all the evidences to the audience, however, the audience might be only limited on the middle class and rich people. If the author can show more evidence about all people can be happier even they don’t have a rich life, it would be more

At the end of the day, the affluent are still not satisfied with their wealth or material items. Source D provides a great example. Even though the couple has purchased everything they could possibly want, they still feel “something is missing.” What they are missing is not a tangible object. It is not something one could go to a store and buy. They cannot obtain happiness in a nice little box on a store shelf. There is no price on happiness. Source A believes “happiness is desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else.” Nothing can supplement happiness. True happiness is “something final and self-sufficient.” People with affluenza can never find this happiness through the constant purchasing of more stuff. Happiness is achieved in many different ways for different individuals but not through wealth. For example, the mother in Source I begins to understand this when she becomes older one Christmas. She realizes no matter how many gifts she may receive,

The pursuit of happiness is the American dream that immigrants envisioned. Immigrants crossed the Atlantic Ocean in droves, as they pursed the copious amount of opportunities that were available to them. Over time, the dream has been in a steady decline and ultimately soured into a nightmare for Americans. The United States’ debt is currently trillions of dollars and American households are also in serious and debilitating debt with no chance at recovery. The cost of living in American has escalated in recent years, but the minimum wage has not followed suit. As a result of the higher cost of living, American people were forced to take out loans and credit cards to charge basic living expenses. As an example, having a child costs around $250,000

We are searching for happiness in the wrong places, and need to develop into a more simple society. If expensive things cannot bring us joy then why are we so drawn toward them? The logical explanation is that expensive possessions seem like a plausible solution to needs we do not understand. There are so many Americans who look happy on their exterior, but live with sadness and sorrow and who comfort themselves with material items.

Almost everyone in the world is searching for happiness. But in order to achieve happiness, specifically in America, people have to forget about the “American dream”. The American dream is an ideal of success that is difficult to measure up to. However, the American dream increases materialism which is a direct path to unhappiness. If we kick the “American dream” out of the park, we all have a higher chance of being happier in our everyday lives.

Although Americans do look better and feel better with the extravagant items they purchase, money doesn’t buy happiness for long term goals. Like many will argue, like Atlantic senior editor Derek Thompson did in his 2013 article, “Yes, Money Does Buy Happiness: 6 Lessons on the Newest Research on Income and Well-Being,” money can only buy happiness for short term goals; it won’t last very long for everyone and it could lead to worse scenarios when the money is gone. Thompson (2013) included statistics on richer countries that are proven to be happier, explaining, “First, the lines go up. More money, more happiness. Second, the lines go up in parallel, more or less. Across language, culture, religion, ethnic background, the same amount of extra money seems to buy the similar amount of extra happiness.” Thompson (2013) found the same similar pattern in many other countries and concluded that they are more happy than poorer countries. Although poorer countries don’t have as many resources or many things like richer countries do, Seth Borenstein, in his 2017 article for The Independent, “Norway Beats Denmark to be Named the Happiest Country in the World by the UN,” can beg to differ. Borenstein (2017) says, “While most countries were either getting happier or at least treading water, America's happiness score dropped 5 per cent over the past decade” (Borenstein, 2017). That shows that America, one of the richest

The majority of the the U.S. population identify themselves as being within the middle or working class. The socioeconomic group between the lower and upper classes. is much smaller than most think and is starting to decline. The large increase in income have reshaped the American middle class that most claim to be part of. Today’s higher income of the American middle class family comes from the two-parent income. This income is higher of those of past generations, however, over the past generation, the increase in income for the median-earning family have not resulted in an improved lifestyle. The reason for life not improving for America’s middle class is often misconstrued with over consumption or purchasing of unneeded items and services, but these activities are not the case for the middle class non improved quality of life. Revolving debt and the large increase in life’s fixed expenses such as mortgage, health care, and child care, these factors are the main reasons for the increase in income for middle class families not resulting in an improved life quality.

As Austrian writer Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach wrote,“To be content with little is difficult; to be content with much, impossible.” History and literature have established that the ideal goal every American has wanted is for his thirst for material possessions to be reached, but even then, the individual isn’t truly happy. Money, and the things it can get you, have long been a part of American culture and the materialist culture of society have been examined in numerous ways from novels to the art of those like Andy Warhol. A life free from the economic woes that plague almost everyone seems like the quintessential existence, but material wealth is not a way to mend issues.

In today’s materialistic world, the phrase that ‘money can’t buy happiness’ is tending to be proved hence otherwise. Social research and surveys have shown results based on an individuals income, health and the political scenario which is dominant in his or her region. It is quite obvious that the gap between the privileged and the not so is growing into a great divide giving rise to different class and status, thus defining ones social circle. It should therefore be understood how an individuals economic status affects their personal happiness throughout all aspects of life. Many tend to refer to this age-old quote especially when they tend to belong to sector of people who can’t afford the modern day luxuries of life. What they do not

Everyone wants to live a happy life. Even those people that hate everything about everyone. The trick is how to get that wanted happiness. Is money a way to achieve this happiness? People, philosophers, professors, and ordinary, everyday people have been pondering this age-old question about the relationship between money and happiness and if money can buy happiness for a very long time. Much research and many surveys have been asked and performed by excited researchers and agog economists. A lot of experiments and presentations galore were rendered by inquisitive University professors and intrigued university undergraduates to provide useful data. As it turns out, money can and will buy happiness for everyone that spends it at the right time and on the right things.

When posed with the task of creating a digital documentary, my first thoughts were not positive. I had expected to be assigned a written essay for our final project, and the concept of creating a persuasive documentary was foreign to me. Eventually I decided that I would continue with the topic of the correlation of money and happiness, due to the fact that I had previously written my literature review on the same topic. I took my previous knowledge that I had learned from researching the broad topic, and took the stance that money does correlate with happiness, but only up to a point. After this point however, happiness is entirely up to the individual. My purpose of choosing this as my thesis was to try and convince my audience that happiness is in actuality very attainable, not an unfathomable feeling. I believe that today’s society stresses a misconception that money is the key to happiness, which is disillusioning entire generations, and I hoped that this brief documentary could show a truthful alternative to this misconception.