Love to Lead - Can Money Buy Happiness?

Money - the root of all evil!

It can no doubt buy a good time, and apart from that, a comfortable time. I think people don't appreciate the value of money until they have a lack of it.Whether it can buy happiness though is another question. How do you define happiness? Is anyone happy all the time? Poor people surely have times when they are ecstatic just as rich people have spells in the doledrums.

It's another vague Love to Lead question which really can't have a sensible answer.

People find happiness in different things - friends and family are important but surely they can't always be there to make you happy. I think being happy and content the whole time is a wholly unlikely proposition regardless of the amount of money you may have. It can mean you have a lot more time to go and get drunk and party - but then there are always the mornings after. It can mean you can do good deeds - and this is probably the crux of where happiness comes in - if you feel what you are doing with your day is worthwhile and rewarding then that must surely be the best way to spend your time. If you have too much money though then maybe the temptations it offers can make you forget the things that are really important to you.

It's all a matter of how you consider money I guess - it is a strange construct in many ways and one which keeps the majority of the population enslaved to its vagaries. The company I work for does it's business with financial institutions but the market within which they work constantly baffles me. The movements of stock which can be seen as a game for stockbrokers and the like can have real tangible effects on people in the real world and yet it is just so many numbers on a screen.

The billions of dollars that the likes of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have are impossible to even visualise for the majority of people. In America, the Federal Reserve, like the Bank of England, is an independent body, not governed by the state. It has the power to set interest rates and print money as it sees fit. Which essentially gives the bankers the power to create money out of nothing. Bank Charges are unfair you say? The whole system of banking is skewed towards the rich - it's like being at a casino - the house always wins.

Unfortunatley this is the world we live in and we can't ignore that - much as I'd like to do a Fight Club scene!

Who amongst us wouldn't want to have the opportunity to be financially independent for the rest of their lives? It begs the question though - what would you spend the money on in order to make you happy?

I've gone off topic a little here but I think the crux of what I'm trying to say is that Money is designed to keep the average man unhappy - or at least preoccupied with the thought of it. Interesting that the first time many people looked at the global warming issue was when the recent financial report containing the amount of damage (in money terms) rising tides and the like would cause!