Quote from BoomerangReturns

Your either happy and poor or rich and unhappy

People say money can't buy happiness but I'd much rather cry in a mansion.

Quote from Gunnii

People say money can't buy happiness but I'd much rather cry in a mansion.

Yes but I've had my foster parents tell me themselves they'd rather be broke like before then have to deal with us kids and get good chunks of money, because they had so much more free time. What I'm saying is when your rich, your free time is lacking. Especially actors and such. They get crowded by paparazzi and have to do benefits and movies and have no free time. Poor people may not have money, but they have more free time theoretically.

Quote from BoomerangReturns

Yes but I've had my foster parents tell me themselves they'd rather be broke like before then have to deal with us kids and get good chunks of money, because they had so much more free time. What I'm saying is when your rich, your free time is lacking. Especially actors and such. They get crowded by paparazzi and have to do benefits and movies and have no free time. Poor people may not have money, but they have more free time theoretically.

Actors get crowded by paparazzis because they are famous not because they're rich, the true 1% isn't the people you see in the magazines.
It also sounds like, to me at least, 'you kids' are the cause of your parents' unhappiness, not the fact that they are making more money.

i pretty sure beggars are pretty happy when they get money

yeah that's cool just ignore the disillusioned old guy

The phrase stems from the idea that once your basic needs are met (food, clothing, shelter, etc), more money isn't going to buy you happiness. It might make life more comfortable or luxurious, but most people's inner happiness doesn't rely on material possessions.

Beggars obviously don't have their basic needs satisfied, so yeah, money decides whether or not they get to eat today. It's not the money itself that makes them happy, but what they do with it.

Quote from Scarecrow

yeah that's cool just ignore the disillusioned old guy

The worlds not ready. But do people still go into the work force with that attitude? Everyone I've spoken to at my uni is generally doing a course that will get them a job that they enjoy and pays the bills.

Quote from Youwishjellyfish

a job that they enjoy and pays the bills.

yeah they can just keep telling themselves that.

all they're going to do is end up turning the thing they enjoy into a mechanical task that makes them miserable.

Quote from Scarecrow

Wrong. They're deluded in to thinking that working hard for someone with a better job than them for the rest of their lives will eventually earn them enough money to stop working entirely and live happily. They work for a tomorrow that doesn't come until they're too old to do anything with it. They live their entire lives miserable and exhausted. Instead of spending their free time considering how meaningless their life is now, they numb themselves with alcohol, and television that keeps reminding them how good it is to own things, and how happy they must be that they can live like this. Then, when they're old and rich enough to retire, they realize that they've already missed their entire life, and are now incapable of doing any of the things that they really wanted to. They die unsatisfied and depressed.

That was deep, bro.

Quote from Scarecrow

yeah that's cool just ignore the disillusioned old guy

No I perfectly agree with you, I was simply trying to point out that money doesn't cause you to get unhappy or depressed, but rather how you are making it. I personally would rather do what I love and earn less money off of it rather then doing something I hate and get rich at it, but assuming that being poor = being happy is absurd.

Quote from Gunnii

No I perfectly agree with you, I was simply trying to point out that money doesn't cause you to get unhappy or depressed, but rather how you are making it. I personally would rather do what I love and earn less money off of it rather then doing something I hate and get rich at it, but assuming that being poor = being happy is absurd.

Quote from Scarecrow

all they're going to do is end up turning the thing they enjoy into a mechanical task that makes them miserable.

:(

That is a pretty damn gloomy way of looking at it. Sounds to me like you feel that the only way to achieve true happiness is to be unemployed.

Well shit, im just a teen you people probably know more than I do, I'm just stating what I've seen

Quote from Gunnii

That is a pretty damn gloomy way of looking at it. Sounds to me like you feel that the only way to achieve true happiness is to be unemployed.

It's what you make of it. He has valid points but I don't think he'd argue that they're universal.

Quote from Scarecrow

all they're going to do is end up turning the thing they enjoy into a mechanical task that makes them miserable.

I dunno. This may just be me being naive but I really do believe you can be happy by turning something you enjoy into your job, it's what I'm doing with chemistry, and up until now it's what I thought you were doing with Chinese medicine.
I'll agree with you that the whole 'living for the weekend' thing comes across as shallow, but I think a lot of that comes from people believing they need to earn as much money as they can to buy as much as they can, forcing them to work harder, making their job stressful, less enjoyable and then a mechanical task.

It sounds like the only way to reach your ideal is to create a society where money isn't necessary and people are able to pursue whatever they want without something holding them back, and if you can figure out how to do that, then you're a much brighter person than me.