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“Money Can’t Buy Happiness” and other classic sidewalk bullshit.

Anything related to matters of the mind

ChrisV

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Money Buys happiness. Period. And. I know what you’re thinking… “No shit Chris… who do you think you’re talking to.. reddit? We know this shit already.” Don’t worry…. It’s simply an intro. I have a way of looking at it that makes it worthwhile.

I think it’s worth looking at since it’s a saying that’s deeply entrenched in our society as a way of shaming the rich. Your mom says it. Your dad says it. It’s actually hilarious that people walk around and say that “Money can’t buy happiness” Why? because. Money literally buys happiness. And that’s all it buys. Every single thing you spend money on is to decrease pain and increase pleasure. Every…. single… thing…. In sales they talk about “pain points.” Your product is designed to reduce “pain points.” In other words, people will buy your product to LITERALLY reduce their pain. Or again, increase their pleasure. Every piece of food you buy, every car warranty you add on, every piece of clothing you buy somehow decreases pain and increases pleasure. You can get around town with a $2000 Toyota Camry just fine, but that Mercedes E-Class will get you there in style. With it’s plush European leather seats and beautiful walnut trim on the interior. The interior dome lights that fade as they turn on, as to not hurt your eyes from becoming too bright too quickly. The Harman-Kardon sound system. Coco Chanel said “The opposite of luxury isn’t poverty, the opposite of luxury is vulgarity.” The tender cut of meat costs more because it’s easier to chew and tastes better

I think there are infinite lessons here… How can you make your products elicit more pleasure? THAT’S WHAT VALUE IS. The word ‘value’ gets thrown around here like a cheap hooker, but what does it mean? It means how can you take a $3 cut of chicken, tenderize it, and make it a $6 cut? How can you sand away the sharp edges. How can you turn a Toyota into a Lexus? How can you make tings more beautiful, more comfortable, taste better, smell better… just elicit more positive emotions in general. Have you ever been inside a Rolls Royce or a Maybach? If you’re not familiar with what the backseat of a $500,000 luxury car looks like, go look it up on Google Images now.

Getting rich in theory is easy. All you have to do is take one thing, and make it better. A deli takes $2 worth the meat, cheese and bread and sells it to you for $6. And by doing that, and giving you that sandwich, they just made your life better. And if you make enough sandwiches you can buy whatever things you want to make your life better. Problem is… you can only make so many sandwiches. If you can. figure out a way to automate that (say a factory, or a computer program,) you just figured out how to scale. Now you’ve gone from a little lemonade stand to millions.

But I digress. I think a healthy way to look at money is as little ‘make life better’ coupons. 1MLB* coupon will make your life a little better (maybe a cola,) while 1,000,000MLB coupons will really make your life better. And by making other people’s lives better, they will give you little MLB coupons in return.

*Not to be confused with Major League Baseball, which is thew world’s most boring sport, imo.

By looking at things this way, we really get to the essence of trade. Our ancestors would trade 1 chicken for 7 bails of hay. A modern barber trades 1 haircut for 3 cheeseburgers. The haircuts he traded made people lives better (hopefully.) Your bank account is a direct reflection of how much pleasure you were able to add to people’s lives. Your bank account is a direct reflection of how much happiness you were able to add to other’s lives. How many people you were able to serve and to what degree.

The reason Mark Zuckerburg is a billionaire is because he was able to improve lives at Mass Scale. And no matter how you feel about the service you have to admit it impacted the world drastically. I believe Apple recently just hit the ONE TRILLION DOLLAR mark. Why? Because How much did the Smartphone impact the world. Bill Gates, one of the

Your bank account is a direct reflection of how positively you impact the world. It keeps score. If you’re at 0 that means you’re doing just as much good as you take. If you’re in debt… well… you’re a value leech.

It’s a great time to be alive because no time in history has it been easier to copy items that give value. In other words… 2000 years ago, you were limited to the good you could do with your own hands. Now-a-days? You can write a book once and upload that book to a server, and 1 million people can give you $20 for it. 2000 years ago, you would have to give lessons to all those people individually. Now-a-days you can invent an electric toothbrush, give the blueprints to a factory, and have them make 10 million copies of them, and impact 10 million lives. There’s never been a better time to scale. At almost no other point in history was the idea of a ‘billionaire’ even possible. The technology simply wasn’t there.

Anyway, I think my overall point is that your bank account is directly correlated to the size of the dent you put into the universe anyhow much happiness you can add to others’ lives. And how much happiness you’re able to withdraw from life is dependent upon how much you add.
 
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ChrisV

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Note: I’ve been slowing going through Unscripted as I’ve had time on Audible. I’m driving and literally just got to Chapter 25. Now I’m slightly embarrassed because my post is almost verbatim to what MJ wrote in his book. I’m a little embarrassed that it’s the same, but also happy that my philosophy is confirmed... I just don’t want anyone to think I’m jack his swag :D.. anyway, good book. This should be everyone’s Ecobomics 101 textbook.
 

Brian Suh

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Money Buys happiness. Period. And. I know what you’re thinking… “No sh*t Chris… who do you think you’re talking to.. reddit? We know this sh*t already.” Don’t worry…. It’s simply an intro. I have a way of looking at it that makes it worthwhile.

I think it’s worth looking at since it’s a saying that’s deeply entrenched in our society as a way of shaming the rich. Your mom says it. Your dad says it. It’s actually hilarious that people walk around and say that “Money can’t buy happiness” Why? because. Money literally buys happiness. And that’s all it buys. Every single thing you spend money on is to decrease pain and increase pleasure. Every…. single… thing…. In sales they talk about “pain points.” Your product is designed to reduce “pain points.” In other words, people will buy your product to LITERALLY reduce their pain. Or again, increase their pleasure. Every piece of food you buy, every car warranty you add on, every piece of clothing you buy somehow decreases pain and increases pleasure. You can get around town with a $2000 Toyota Camry just fine, but that Mercedes E-Class will get you there in style. With it’s plush European leather seats and beautiful walnut trim on the interior. The interior dome lights that fade as they turn on, as to not hurt your eyes from becoming too bright too quickly. The Harman-Kardon sound system. Coco Chanel said “The opposite of luxury isn’t poverty, the opposite of luxury is vulgarity.” The tender cut of meat costs more because it’s easier to chew and tastes better

I think there are infinite lessons here… How can you make your products elicit more pleasure? THAT’S WHAT VALUE IS. The word ‘value’ gets thrown around here like a cheap hooker, but what does it mean? It means how can you take a $3 cut of chicken, tenderize it, and make it a $6 cut? How can you sand away the sharp edges. How can you turn a Toyota into a Lexus? How can you make tings more beautiful, more comfortable, taste better, smell better… just elicit more positive emotions in general. Have you ever been inside a Rolls Royce or a Maybach? If you’re not familiar with what the backseat of a $500,000 luxury car looks like, go look it up on Google Images now.

Getting rich in theory is easy. All you have to do is take one thing, and make it better. A deli takes $2 worth the meat, cheese and bread and sells it to you for $6. And by doing that, and giving you that sandwich, they just made your life better. And if you make enough sandwiches you can buy whatever things you want to make your life better. Problem is… you can only make so many sandwiches. If you can. figure out a way to automate that (say a factory, or a computer program,) you just figured out how to scale. Now you’ve gone from a little lemonade stand to millions.

But I digress. I think a healthy way to look at money is as little ‘make life better’ coupons. 1MLB* coupon will make your life a little better (maybe a cola,) while 1,000,000MLB coupons will really make your life better. And by making other people’s lives better, they will give you little MLB coupons in return.

*Not to be confused with Major League Baseball, which is thew world’s most boring sport, imo.

By looking at things this way, we really get to the essence of trade. Our ancestors would trade 1 chicken for 7 bails of hay. A modern barber trades 1 haircut for 3 cheeseburgers. The haircuts he traded made people lives better (hopefully.) Your bank account is a direct reflection of how much pleasure you were able to add to people’s lives. Your bank account is a direct reflection of how much happiness you were able to add to other’s lives. How many people you were able to serve and to what degree.

The reason Mark Zuckerburg is a billionaire is because he was able to improve lives at Mass Scale. And no matter how you feel about the service you have to admit it impacted the world drastically. I believe Apple recently just hit the ONE TRILLION DOLLAR mark. Why? Because How much did the Smartphone impact the world. Bill Gates, one of the

Your bank account is a direct reflection of how positively you impact the world. It keeps score. If you’re at 0 that means you’re doing just as much good as you take. If you’re in debt… well… you’re a value leech.

It’s a great time to be alive because no time in history has it been easier to copy items that give value. In other words… 2000 years ago, you were limited to the good you could do with your own hands. Now-a-days? You can write a book once and upload that book to a server, and 1 million people can give you $20 for it. 2000 years ago, you would have to give lessons to all those people individually. Now-a-days you can invent an electric toothbrush, give the blueprints to a factory, and have them make 10 million copies of them, and impact 10 million lives. There’s never been a better time to scale. At almost no other point in history was the idea of a ‘billionaire’ even possible. The technology simply wasn’t there.

Anyway, I think my overall point is that your bank account is directly correlated to the size of the dent you put into the universe anyhow much happiness you can add to others’ lives. And how much happiness you’re able to withdraw from life is dependent upon how much you add.
Money is an important component of happiness but it doesn't buy happiness nor is it the main things of happiness.

Ask a cancer patient or a morbidly obese rich man too fat to get out of his bed that money buys happiness. Health, financial freedom, and relationships are the three blocks of happiness IMO.
 

ChrisV

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Income is directly correlated with health.

Sure you can find outliers and counterexamples, but as a whole the wealthier you are, the healthier you are. Or the healthier are, the wealthier you are? I’m not sure which causes which but happiness and income directly correlate statistically.
 
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Brian Suh

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Income is directly correlated with health.

Sure you can find outliers and counterexamples, but as a whole the wealthier you are, the healthier you are. Or the healthier are, the wealthier you are? I’m not sure which causes which but happiness and income directly correlate statistically.
It's an oversimplification. When I was in college completely broke I had the time of my life. I was in great shape and had plenty of good friends and girlfriends. Life was good. But then again I didn't have to worry about money because my parents paid for college so I guess that disproves this argument :p
 

ChrisV

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Bingo... your basic needs were taken care of. There was a roof over your head, you had clothes, food...

Now let’s say you didn’t have those things, do you think you still would have been happy? By you having those things, it’s almost like you had a certain amount of money by default. It would be the equivalent of having a few hundred dollars deposited into your account weekly then you paying for those things.
 

ChrisV

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Money isn’t the only thing. Don’t get me wrong. But statistically it correlates. Pay attention to every time you spend money for the next week. Realize that EVERY time you spend money, it’s to alleviate some type of discomfort. Whether you buy a drink, or new clothes or something to eat. Sure there are other things in life that cause happiness, but we primarily spend money to alleviate discomfort.
 
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Boo

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This isn't exactly a new concept, it's been studied to death by some of the smartest researchers at top universities. Consistently they've found that money can only buy a limited amount of happiness and that the incremental gain in happiness per dollar drops rapidly. If I remember correctly, the number that gets thrown around is $75,000, which is the level of peak happiness. After that any additional money makes little to no difference to happiness, only other changes in circumstance can.

If anybody thinks that they'll be incredibly happy all of a sudden when they pass an arbitrary dollar amount, you're going to have a bad surprise waiting for you. Above a decent salary, you need to find something more in your life. The best definition of happiness that I've heard from psych researchers is that happiness is when you see yourself moving towards a valued goal, which is probably why just being rich isn't important.
 

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When people say money doesnt buy happiness, in the back of their head, they know that they will never reach their financial goals. This is a way to feel better about their reality. Its pretty damaging though because it encourages low standards to the people who listen to them

Ive also heard stuff like "Rich people commit suicide all the time"
 
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ChrisV

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Yes, but that number also changes with inflation and cost of living. Those studies were from around 2007. I live in NY so at thew time of those studies that number was more like 100k, and now it’s more like $125,000.
 
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Boo

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Yes, but that number also changes with inflation and cost of living. Those studies were from around 2007. I live in NY so at thew time of those studies that number was more like 100k, and now it’s more like $125,000.
Of course, that's the number that's averaged for across the nation. But that doesn't change the result of the study which is that earning above a specific amount shows little to no increase in happiness. The number is nearly irrelevant, but what it shows is that money can only buy a certain amount of happiness and the cost is very little.
 

ChrisV

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I know, I cited that study in another thread. I even have the original paper. It’s because when you make 100K (or whatever) you can have most of your desires. Obviously it cannot buy you things like health or love, but even that is BS because financial issues are cited as the #1 reason for divorce and income directly correlates with health. So it seems as though money can certainly help your relationship and health.
 

xmartel

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Canada, eh!
I used to think the same way you do. Even after I made lots of money. It took till a few years ago to understand what that saying was actually saying.

What you're talking about, and what those studies are talking about is what I'd call surface happiness. You absolutely can buy surface happiness. Though it does drop off noticeably fairly quickly.

But that saying isn't talking about surface happiness. It's talking about joy. The deep seated joy in your soul. The joy that you either have or don't have (and varying amounts in between) regardless of outside factors, people, or material things.

Most people don't know this distinction. And I wish I would have figured it out years before I actually did.

It's along the same lines as this. If someone hurls an insult at you, you aren't insulted because of what they said. You're insulted (or not) because of how you chose to take it, and what you did with it.
 
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