happiness and materialism

Can wealth and prosperity give us happiness?

Many of us think that being rich, able to afford to buy what we want, live in a good house and drive a flash car, would makes us happy. But we'd only be partly right.

People in the more affluent countries are, on average, happier than those in poorer countries. Within a country, wealthy people tend to be slightly happier than poor people, other things being equal. Which is what we might expect. But once a person has enough money to purchase the necessities of life, their happiness doesn't increase much even if they get a lot more money.

Wanting to have more quite definitely leads to being less happy and never really satisfied. Psychologist Ed Diener: "Materialism is toxic to happiness".

People tend to be happier when they gain intrinsic rewards (those that come as part of another experience), not external ones (where the rewards are sought for their own sake). Thus, people who spend their time and money on experiences and relationships are generally happier than those who spend on possessions.

"We want to understand the meaning of life, and create meaning in our lives and money can't do that for us." Clinical psychologist, Amanda Gordon

So if you want to be happy, be content with what you have, enjoy it when you can increase your wealth, but don’t worry or be competitive about it. Enjoy living and relating to people, not owning - affluence is not what makes people happy.

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