ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS YO! WHAT IS A GOOD LIFE?

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WHAT IS A GOOD LIFE? ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS YO!

Recently I have been watching the Netflix show, Young, African and Famous. So the plot of the whole show is showing the lifestyles of well- Young, rich and famous African individuals.

 The cast has a total net-worth of 64.9 USD million dollars. These are real wealthy individuals, with the least wealthy of them having a net worth of 1 million US dollars. Enough about them but what astonished me was their lifestyles and how the characters had the belief that having more money means better life. They usually had the saying “To more money, To more success, To more life”.



This belief is not upheld by them alone. Most people in modern society carry the same belief, more money= better life. Is this true though? So like in the first filler post, I’ll try to see how the accumulation of material wealth is related to living a good life.

But a disclaimer, measuring how good a life is subjective, meaning there is no real accurate way of measuring one’s life. Measuring a good life is highly dependent of culture and human beliefs. There is no scientific metric of measuring a good life (of which I know of). So I am going to use the metric of happiness because happiness is held as the most important thing in most cultures.

So I am going to discuss how the ownership of material wealth correlates with the welfare and overall happiness of an individual. First to get this out really quick, we do need money to live since most of us live in a capitalist world where money is the medium of exchange.

We need money because we need it to buy food, shelter and clothes, these are all essential in the life of a human being.

What I want to know is “does having too much money bring one a good life?”. And a good life in my context is one with happiness because studies show happiness equals a good life for many. I want to see if more money increases happiness in an individual.

So from my research (Mostly Google searches and You tube videos), money can actually bring happiness to an individual. Acquiring money does stimulate the reward centers of the brain leading to the release of hormones and chemicals related to happiness and losing money does lead to the brain producing hormones that bring negative emotions in humans but this is for the short term or a short moment, how about the long term, by that I mean a more fulfilling life, a happier life.

Many studies show wealthy people are happier because they simply live a stress free life compared to normal people. This is a simple fact, a person who has money doesn’t have to struggle with things like debt. Debt does significantly reduce one’s happiness and increases stress and depression. So wealthy people are apparently happier in some studies because of this. This can be summarized by the phrase

“MONEY WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY BECAUSE LIFE WITHOUT ENOUGH MONEY IS HARD”

This is something most of us can guess. Wealthy people do not have to struggle with problems related to financial burden thus leading them to be happier. But other studies say something completely different.

Others accredit this happiness caused by money not to money itself but rather the user of such money. Some studies show that how people spend money affects their happiness level. Most of these say spending money on material things does not increase happiness but spending money on experiences does increase happiness. For example, imagine we got Billionaire A and Billionaire B. Billionaire A spends his money on a new sports car while Billionaire B spends his money doing what he loves with his family maybe a family vacation. Both will get happiness, that good old release of dopamine from the hypothalamus but Billionaire A will drop back to normal levels faster than Billionaire B.

These studies try to prove that Billionaire B is happier than Billionaire A because experiences matter more than material goods. This kind of true since most people will remember certain moments in their lives compared to the objects they once possessed. So did we just debunk the mystery of what is a good life? Should have a lot of money and spend it experiences, this would lead to more happiness, full stop right?



There are other studies that go well off the mark. These studies show that the process of acquiring money is grueling and hard and spending money on one’s self does not bring happiness compared to giving or helping someone else.

One study in the University of British Columbia shows students who spent their college years hustling for money were less happy compared to those who didn’t even though they got wealthier at the end. This phenomenon can be accredited to how the students spent their free time. Those who spent finding money used their free time for money rather than spend it on things that make them happy like social conventions, etc making them less happy. That can also be the reason for some people having a job with a 6 figure salary is not fulfilling.

But another study took me by surprise, saying giving to other people can bring more happiness than receiving, meaning spending money on yourself is not as rewarding as helping someone else. These studies use scripture like the Bible to explain this. Apparently even Jesus himself said this. But besides the religious standpoint, scientifically speaking this can be true. Humans are social animals and helping each other can actually lead to more happiness as it increases the chances of survival.

Kurzgesagt, the science You tube channel created a video about this.



CONCLUSION

So does a good life depend on your net worth? To be honest, am not sure at all. This blog post felt very confusing to me. Since we first considered a good life on the basis of happiness and we might be wrong about that. Maybe a good life is not determined by happiness rather it is determined by another metric like devotion to a deity or impact on society or even sadness can be a metric for a good life but we would never know.

So as far we know, money does impact one’s happiness but it does not guarantee it. So the saying “more money=more life” might be wrong.

So to conclude like the first post, to attain a good life, live life the way you want to live your life because it is your life.

Thank you for reading this far and if you were interested by today’s blog post and the blog itself. Please comment, advertise and contact the author it is appreciated.

Next week post: WELCOME TO EARTH!

REFERENCES

  • fastcompany.com
  • Tyndale.com
  • Montgomeryadviser.com
  • Medium.com
  • Harvard business review

 

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