Does money buy us happiness? What do feel, if not happiness?

Money can’t buy happiness, because happiness cannot be sold. Nowhere can we find a product
that can give us happiness, not even from the things we desired the most. Happiness cannot even have
a price because it is too complex. Instead, what it buys is the feeling of satisfaction that we get as we
acquire our desires through money.

Often, we confuse satisfaction with the concept of happiness, which are two different things.
Satisfaction is the state of contentment from getting the things we’ve wanted, while happiness is a state
of bliss, that is from a reason that extends even beyond the acquisition of our desires.

Let’s say that the only thing that can cheer you up is something that only money can buy. Does
that mean that money can buy your happiness? I still think I can’t, because that happiness came from
your desired thing, and not from money itself. You may argue that if that’s the case, then money
indirectly bought your happiness. However, it didn’t. For it to be considered something you bought, it
should be a direct consequence of paying something. Thus, money only gave you the satisfaction of
getting your desires, but not happiness, because it came from the things you’ve wanted the most.

For that reason, happiness then is not bought but earned. So, it doesn’t need money, to begin
with. Even if your happiness is money, that happiness still isn’t bought. You don’t buy it, because you
earn it from exhibiting hard work, sacrifice, and determination. Hence, your happiness isn’t from buying
but from earning. Therefore, there is no involvement of money in the process of obtaining your
happiness, proving that happiness cannot be bought.

It would also be better for society to have a happiness that cannot be bought because it’s fair for
everyone. If money can buy happiness, that means that the poor would have lesser chances of acquiring
one. There would be an inequal provision of happiness in our society. Doesn’t that make us sad than
happy?

However, we should acknowledge that money is a way for us to acquire our happiness and
desires. We should consider it as a means of getting what we want to achieve that feeling of bliss. But at
the end of the day, it still doesn’t buy it. Money still cannot buy happiness, because happiness cannot be
sold, and therefore cannot be bought, but it is earned and given by our aspirations and determination.

Like Coco Chanel said, “The best things in life are free, the second best are expensive". We just got to
earn them. We need to work hard to get what we want, in ways that do not step on others. We also
need to be patient and consistent, because happiness cannot be found on just a single item in a single
moment. It is a long, continuous process. So, we wait. Happiness is on its way.