CAN MONEY BUY YOU HAPPINESS?

Some people say that money is the most important thing in human life. On the other hand, someone believes that there are things that cannot be bought even with a lot of money. Most people live their lives trying to be happy. Then, what is happiness? You have to ask yourself whether happiness is relative or absolute. If you feel happiness through someone's comparative advantage, happiness is closely related to money, and if you feel that your happiness is in your satisfaction, you may not think that money is an indispensable element of happiness. The study of happiness began with philosophy and psychology, but it is a concept that has recently been emphasized in the field of social science. Then, what is this relationship between happiness and money? People in the past argued that subjective happiness could not be concluded with objective income. However, in the current capitalist market economy, the proportion of money in our lives is increasing and has become a prerequisite. Is there still no correlation between happiness and money in this social aspect? First, we looked at the argument that money cannot determine happiness. The representative basis for this argument is Easterlin's Paradox. Easterlin's paradox of looking at happiness from an economic point of view has been criticized a lot, but the result itself is not meaningless. Easterlin's paradox is that if income exceeds a certain level and basic needs are met, happiness will no longer increase even if income continues to increase. This was a conclusion made through the results that real wages in Western society have increased over the past 50 years, but happiness has not risen. This seems to be the story that we cannot buy happiness with money. According to a study published in 2020 by the University of Texas in the U. S. , people tended to feel more happy when they "experience" something than when they "owned it. " According to a study of 2, 635 adults living in the United States, they tended to be happier when they ate at restaurants or went to sports stadiums at the same cost than when they bought jewelry or clothes. This is the key to finding a way to be happy even with less money. Of course, if you have a lot of money, you will have economic and time to spare and are more likely to have more diverse experiences. However, it means that we can find a way to be happier under our limited economic conditions. In other words, when you want to buy something expensive with compensation psychology, learning new sports, playing musical instruments, or finding a new destination is a way to increase your happiness. However, the position that money can determine happiness and some scholars argued that the study was wrong. This is because the state implements various economic support policies to increase the happiness of the people. When ranking the causes of suicidal thoughts from 2008 to 2018, economic difficulties are more than 35% every year, overwhelmingly ranking first compared to other causes. Looking at the studies on subjective happiness in some countries, happiness and income have a positive correlation. In addition, in order to obtain intellectual and aesthetic satisfaction that plays an important role in improving an individual's quality of life, minimum economic and physical safety must be guaranteed first. From this point of view, we feel that money can guarantee minimal happiness. According to a paper by a research team at the University of Pennsylvania published in the 보National Academy of Sciences 결과, a survey of 33, 000 U. S. workers showed that the annual income of $75, 000, which is generally the peak of happiness, is not a happiness baseline. It is explained that happiness did not stagnate or decrease after that, but rather rose. The research team said it drew a curve that increases happiness along with rising income. Even in rich countries, high income is a potential factor in raising daily happiness. However, since the study was limited to people with an annual income of $15, 000 to $480, 000, no further link between income and happiness has been confirmed. According to the research team, happiness increases accordingly every time income doubles. In other words, increasing from 40 million won to 80 million won means that happiness increases significantly from 100 million won to 140 million won. When you think about the nature of happiness, the factors that determine happiness are very diverse. Even if it is not money, people feel happy in human relationships, are satisfied with their social position, and feel happy. Then, can't human relationships and social positions be bought with money? We think that in order to increase our social position, we must succeed in the job market after entering a higher school. The first step in enhancing social position is to increase one's academic achievement. However, academic achievement is also not completely free from money. When examining children after the age of 7 entering school age in Korea, the average score of basic cognitive skills tended to increase in the order of the poor, the second-highest, and the second-highest. This result, which increases the gap in academic achievement as age increases, affects entering higher schools, and this social inequality has a significant impact on transferring to the next generation. In addition, looking at other factors, gray matter among the components of the brain is the part responsible for cognitive and language skills. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin in 2013 compared gray matter sizes according to household income, comparing children from households with an average annual income of less than $20, 000 and children from families with less than $90, 000 per year. Cognition and language skills also affect academic ability, but they also have a great influence when establishing human relationships with others. Can we argue that money does not decide anything in our lives despite these results? Looking at these results, it can be seen rationally that money is an important means of determining happiness. However, emotionally, few people would agree that money determines our happiness. The fact that those who have and those who do not have different opportunities for happiness from birth is directly related to inequality. According to a paper published in the international journal Frontiers in Psychology, how much we earn is more important than the absolute figure. According to the study of the United States and Western European countries, the greater the income inequality, the lower the happiness of those with relatively low incomes. Analysts say that too much income inequality eliminates hope for "identity volatility, " increases relative deprivation, and increases complaints about the rich. Even if you were born into the family of your own, it can be seen as pure luck rather than your own efforts. If you think from the standpoint of Rawls's 'bale of ignorance', it is easy to find the answer to these problems and think about what the right direction is. This is because when you don't know what situation you will be in, think fairly and claim that it is a just society that guarantees minimum happiness for the weak. Also, we have to ask the question of whether we live ignoring trivial happiness. This capitalist world we live in does not leave those who feel happy in their own way without money. It constantly raises concerns about old age, and seeks to have the belief that the more money, the better. Only then can people work and a capitalist society roll. I think money can prevent misfortune, but I can't buy intact happiness itself. In a fairy tale called Last Alchemist (Last Alchemist / Colin Thompson), "Gold glitters, but not as shiny as the sun, gold bracelets and gold necklaces are beautiful, but not as beautiful as sunflowers. Furthermore, gold may sparkle more than egg yolks, but it cannot be eaten. " There is a phrase like this. Didn't we miss the little happiness hidden in our daily lives by looking at money and comparing it to what others have? I think true happiness is something you discover yourself, and you can feel happiness in values and experiences other than money. I don't think all happiness can be determined by financial situation for humans. It is unfortunate for everyone that they fail to look at the nature of happiness in a society where materialism and economic anxiety coexist and simply compare what others have and what we do not have