Does money bring happiness? A reflection on mental well-being

To what extent is it true that money gives us happiness? Can it produce the reverse effect?

Of all the things that we believe make us happy, money has always played an important role in our life in society. And to understand why, we must start from the premise that we currently live in the so-called "welfare state". This has to do with the economic development of the countries, but... is it really true that money brings happiness?

The relationship between money and happiness

A system born out of social, economic and political struggles that provides all people with the services they need (or not) to live with an acceptable degree of well-being, that is, to basically be well.

The state educates us, takes care of basic care, provides us with transportation, gives us housing, but.... What drives this complex capitalist system? First, the expectation that everyone will give something back through work, and second, obviously, money.

The welfare state provides us with what to live on, but it doesn't tell us how to do it, and that traps us in an involuntary contract. that traps us in an involuntary contract that we have not asked for.. It is for this very reason that many people do things for the money and don't even know why; we live in the society of success, in which you must "be somebody" or "do things" to correspond to that utility expected by the welfare state.

The nature of success

Is there only one kind of success in this life? There are those who believe or feel that happiness is related only to money and material goods. And it is logical to think so, money is the necessary means for the satisfaction of human material needs such as eating, sleeping under a roof or having access to health care. The problem is that the welfare society has made everything depend on the economic, including the happiness of its citizens, without realizing that true success is to be happy and that our currency is a smile.

Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that we all have the right to a standard of living adequate for our health and well-being. But as we see in the world, we are still far from this.

Can you imagine not having the resources necessary for your happiness? Poverty cannot be reduced to a simple economic issue.It must be considered as a structural, dynamic and multifactorial phenomenon that also encompasses factors such as education, health and housing.

Poverty therefore causes a decline in cognition, and if sustained, can permanently damage the brain in the long term. Who hasn't ever felt anxious about money? When you don't have enough in your wallet, all the alarms in your body go off to cope with impending resource management. In the words of Martin Seligman in the Networks program, "below the minimum necessary, wealth is very important; that is, poverty negatively affects the level of happiness".

The other side of the coin is the "perfect" citizen who contributes something to the state through work.. But that, as is now evident, also "takes its toll": in Japan it is considered normal to stay longer hours at work and, even if it's just taking a "nap" on the subway on the way home, that has led this society to lead much of the technology industry at the expense of an unsustainable pace of life.

Work and psychological well-being

Have you heard of Karoshi (過労死)? It is a Japanese word meaning "death by overwork", and is used to describe a social phenomenon in the work environment that has existed for several decades in the Japanese country, which consists of an increase in the mortality rate due to complications due to excessive working hours, especially strokes and Heart attacks.

Overwork, therefore, leads to a decline in mental health.and the main reason is that it leaves less time for self-care. Easterlin's paradox already challenged the belief that more money equals more happiness. But it is in more recent studies that the reality of the matter can be seen: the more money, the more memory of happiness, but from about $75,000 -annually- instant happiness would no longer increase.

To keep earning more money, life becomes more complicated, since one must do and think so many things at the same time that this itself generates unhappiness. So yes, one has more material wealth, but the possibilities of happiness decrease, "we have more things but we have less and less time for what really makes us happy: friends, family, leisure."

What we take away from all this is that you cannot be (as) happy if your basic needs are not met, and although happiness increases equally with money, there is a maximum point at which, no matter how much money you have, happiness will no longer increase.

In short, money is an important element in our society, which can cause happiness and misfortune. can cause happiness and misfortune simultaneously.. When you ask people "Does money bring happiness?" there is a quite clear perception on this subject: the most repeated answer is "no, but it helps".

Conclusion

Money gives us happiness if we use it as what it is, a tool.but it takes it away if it is the goal. However, I want to make one thing clear: money is not eaten, it does not put a band-aid on us, nor does it shelter us from the rain. The important thing is to have food, to have someone care about us, and to have a roof over our heads.

The welfare society, and with it money, gives us everything we need to be well, but it does not provide us with happiness. Our happiness depends more on what we do with the money we have than on how much we have.