Throughout the years are definition of happiness has changed. Now we buy our happiness but it doesn’t solve the problem permanently. Money CAN buy happiness, it just can’t prevent sadness. The biggest question that everyone wants to know: Does money run our lives? Half of the world would likely choose money over love but it makes are heart shut down. We think buying items we want will fulfill the lack of love or the sadness we feel, but the truth is it just does it for a certain time. It won’t cover up the love, for example, Annie the rich man wasn’t really happy until he adopted Annie.
We see all kinds of different ads like: food, clothes, animals, or cars. Advertisements trick our minds making us think we have to have it NOW no matter what the price tag says. Naomi Klein, a Canadian journalist is known for work in corporate abuses and glob cation. Klein lets us know “whoever owns the least, has the fewest employees on the payroll and produces the most powerful images, as opposed to products, wins the race” (769). They show how they want their products to be seen as the consumer. A key term that get confused are brands and advertising, but Klein sees them as totally different meanings, “think of the brand as the core meaning of the modern corporation, and of the advertisement as one vehicle used to convey that meaning to the world” (770). Now a day each advertisement is trying to one up each other, for example, Samsung and Apple. Samsung came out with the new Galaxy A9 Pro and Apple jumped in the competition with the IPhone X’s. Klein feels “ads had to inform consumers about the existence of some new invention, then convince them that their lives would be better” (770). Every ad had a strategy to catch some age levels attention like kids they would put their favorite cartoon characters (SpongeBob, paw patrol,etc.), women have these beautiful women showing off the product or men, and men get drawn to the television with women or sports teams, cars, etc. Klein notes that “logos were tailored to evoke familiarity and folksiness, in an effort to counteract the new and unsettling anonymity of packaged goods” (770). They know what everyone wants so they make their dream a reality.
In Twitchells article “Needing the Unnecessary” first to luxury turning into a necessity and not a goal. James B twitchell a English professor, who teaches advertising, at the University of Florida. He defines luxury as the consumption of superfluous objects that are low in utility and meaning in pursuit of self-satisfaction and happiness. Business wise it is imperative to know the majority of those seeking luxury or not the wealthiest but the middle-class of the society. Twichell initial depiction of the need for unnecessary materiel as a basis for analyzing material culture is undisputable. It is clear that people are described as “you are what you consume. And most of what you consume is totally unnecessary yet remarkably well made (Twitchell, 319). I totally agree with which one asks with that people consume an estimate on a bid to claim happiness and class in modern society. We as a society have a “look” dirty clothes are poor, and nice ironed clothes are rich. We make the assumption how people, talk, look ,or buy to know if they are rich.
The question everyone wants to know is “Does money make us happy?”. Money can get our heads out of the actually reality and go to are own little world. That’s why some people buy cars or shoes to put like a timer on your heart, and every time it runs out they buy more. The need will never stop it’ll keep growing each time. It’ll begin to want you to buy more.
Governments are the biggest players in the happiness conspiracy. Any political action aimed at a more people- friendly or planet-friendly happiness is certain to be met with fierce resistance. The best consumers are itchy narcissists who hop, skip, and jump from one fleeting desire to the next, never deeply satisfied, but always in the process of satisfying themselves. Our entire socioeconomic system is designed to spew out this type of “ideal citizen”. Contentment it is the single greatest threat to the economics of greed and consumer happiness (schumaker 338).
Schumaker is a psychologist who wrote a book for cultural mental health. He believes that everyone can be happy from materialistic things . He gives the example of, “the backlash against today’s narcissistic happiness is rekindling interest in the ancient Greek philosophers who equated happiness with virtue. Especially celebrated by them were loyalty, friendship, moderation, honesty, compassion, and trust. Research shows that all these traits are in steep decline today-despite being happiness booster. Like true love and true happiness, they have become uneconomic” (Schumaker 338). Like how Schumaker lets us know that, “the people are so poor, they have nothing-and yet they have so much joy and seem so happy” (338). Money gives us a way out.
Don Peck and Ross Douthat theory about happiness with money is that : the poorest should be unhappy, and the richest are the happiest. Peck and Douthat are Atlantic monthly journalists. A myth that they give is, “in poor countries city-dwellers report themselves to be markedly happier than villagers. And surveys show these same villagers to be far more materialistic than urbanities, valuing money, and material goods above friendship and family”( peck and Douthat 335). Now do I believe poor people are happier than rich people in some ways I do and others I don’t. I’m in the middle class and yes at times nothing can bring us down but other times like a car bill or any type of bill does bring an unflattering frown to are face.
Schumaker believe that “ the study of “happy societies” is awakening us to the importance of social connectedness, spirituality, simplicity, modesty of expectations, gratitude, patience, touch, music, movement, play, and “down time””(Schumaker 339). Rich people use materialistic items to cover up the depression they have from being alone or just stress. From our country data we are in the middle of happy and sad. “ personal happiness: education, political Freedom, women’s rights, and so forth. National income appears to be one of the best single predators of Over Watch being explaining perhaps 40% of the difference in contentment among nations. For individual countries with few expectations, self-reported happiness and increase his income has risen.” Love and money are a big thing in are minds, “people who value money tend to be less happy than those who value love” (Peck and Douthat 333). Everyone thinks you have to have money to be happy because you can do whatever you want, when you want and it seems like they don’t have any responsibilities. Like rich people they can get themselves out of anything because they have the cash everyone wants, but poor people have to work they have to care more then their selves on their shoulder. They have to take care of everyone in the household, but rich just think of their selves, they are hypnotized by getting paid. Peck and Douthat believe that we increase in happiness when “.. it takes place at both the individual and the societal level. In poor societies those at the top of the socioeconomic ladder are significantly happier than those at the bottom; in highly developed societies there is little class difference in happiness” (333) Everyone is like the saying “Keeping up with Jones” its when you think what everyone else’s have will make you as happy as they are. The US revolves around money we need it but do we need it to be happy? It seems if we don’t have it we would be depressed and are hearts would never be full.
People who value money highly tend to be less happy than those who value love. What if happiness doesn’t come from loving someone else but it comes from loving yourself. Happiness is huge because some people give up on it and others take advantage of it. For example if you have ever heard the term “gold digger” you know its when a male or female marries for money. You can see this in all types of movies and real life today it even had a hit song in 2005 by Kanye West. Many people think they can’t live without buying things or just having access to money anytime they need it . Another example how money has taken over is when a wife gets upset at the husband he goes and buys flowers, chocolates, even expensive jewelry to make his significant other happy again. The same if men get angry the women go buy tools or alcoholic beverages. We rely on money to make are own or significant other, friends , family, coworker, anyone really that we encounter that we make upset, happy again. But the problem with this relying on it never last next week you’ll be out again spending $50 on tools or $2,000 on a new kitchen “ we’re removed from nature, married to work, adrift from family and friends, spiritually starved, sleep deprived, physically unfit, dumbed down, and enslaved to debt” (Schumaker 337). Now poor people don’t have this ‘great’ lifestyle that they can go spend how much they ever want “for happiness to be mature and heartfelt, it must be shared-whether by those around us or by tomorrow’s children. If not, happiness can be downright depressing” (Schumaker 340). If they make anyone mad they pay them back from the heart, for example, they’ll make them a home made dinner, make special cards, or even just do simple household chores. Is happiness actually something we can feel or is it something we get. I guess it just depends what class you are in the world and if you think with your wallet instead of your heart. We as a country have changed so much, “we laugh only a third as often as we did 50 years ago-hence the huge popularity of laugh clubs and laughter therapy… Yet we’re the least happy society in history if we measure happiness in terms of mental health, personal growth, or general sense of aliveness” (Schumaker 337) . We need to stop relying on money and wealth to get us out of any situation and to make us happy. We need to hear a joke instead of receiving a teddy bear. We need to stop guilt tripping people to get more than we have. We need to get happiness with in us and not around us. We need to rely on the other emotions than just happy other things can help us sometimes sadness can help make you feel better, not being happy isn’t the end of the world. Earning my own money has made me happy do to the fact I can buy whatever I want when I want but there is still something missing and new shoes, or a new dog won’t fix.
