CAN MONEY BRING HAPPINESS

Many people in the world think that money can bring happiness. About 60% Americans believe that money can certainly bring happiness. Their targets for this is $1.2 million (say about 10 crores rupees) We Indians must also be believing in this happiness theory. For that each one has his own goal. Let us now look it through another angle. A very rich man in his comfortable a.c. room is sweating and losing sleep in the night, whereas a poor agriculturist is enjoying a sound sleep in the night in the open veranda even without a fan. This shows that the money and happiness theory is not a standard one. Someone with any amount of money cannot attain happiness and some others with no much money with them remain happy most of the time.

We may set a measurement for Happiness from 0 to 10. Those who indicate '0' has no happiness and those who indicate '10' is having total happiness. I don't think that there is anyone in the world who is having '0' right through their life and also there cannot be anyone who enjoys '10' happiness right through the life. Then we may pick one very rich man and a very poor one on a particular day and time.  When we record the reading of both on that moment, it can be possible that the rich man indicates '3' and the poor one indicates '6'.

We can understand from this imaginary experiment that possession of wealth alone cannot make one happy always and lack of wealth may not make one unhappy always. In fact there are many components that put together one becomes happy and similarly there are many negative components those act simultaneously one becomes unhappy. This must be a standard theory for happiness. Money or any form of wealth is only a mere component that causes happiness or unhappiness.

K V George