Posted on 02/13/2006 10:19:16 AM PST by new cruelty
Money really doesn't buy happiness, study finds Feb 13 12:19 PM US/Eastern Email this story
Money doesn't buy happiness, and now there's a study to prove it. Australian researchers found that people in well-off Sydney are among the most miserable in the country, while those in some of the poorest areas are much more satisfied with their lives.
"Only at very, very high levels does money actually have any impact to act as a buffer," said Deakin University researcher Liz Eckerman.
"Money doesn't actually buy happiness and that's what was shown very clearly for the nearly 23,000 people we've interviewed so far," she told ABC radio.
The findings, collated since 2001, show that while there are no extremes of well-being in Australia, the happiest areas had a lower population, more people aged 55 or over, more women, more married people and less income inequality.
The survey assessed a person's satisfaction with their standard of living, health, relationships, life achievement, safety, community connection and future security.
Robert Cummins, a professor of psychology at Deakin who compiled the survey's scorecard, put the difference down to the higher cost of housing and high population density in cities.
"People in these rural electorates often have the advantage of additional disposable income since the cost of living, particularly housing, tends to be reduced outside the cities," he told The Australian newspaper.
Of the 150 national electorates surveyed, one of the nation's poorest, Wide Bay in rural Queensland, was among the happiest.
If it will help, I am more than happy to take the money off their hands.
It can rent it for a time, though. :^)
Sorry, I'll be the judge of that. Send a bunch of money over.
Anyone who thinks money can't buy happiness doesn't know where to shop.
Well-off does not equal rich.
Many of them are probably up to their eyeballs in debt, living paycheck-to-paycheck, afraid of losing their high-paying job or of the profits from their business declining even slightly.
Sugar Ray Robinson said in his Biography:
"I've been rich and I've been poor. Rich is better!"
It may not buy hapniess but it buys a lot more and better quality booze to drown the sorrows in.
That's just what they want you to think.
LOL!
Yeah, but I'd rather be rich and unhappy than poor and unhappy.
In the words of the profound philosopher, David Lee Roth, "Money may not buy happiness, but it can buy you a REAL BIG boat you can sail up alongside it in."
My wise ol' Grandpappy allus used to say, "It's better to be rich and healthy than to be poor and sick." I still think that makes a lot of sense, even today. :^)
No kidding. I have never seen a beautiful women marry a poor man. They must know something.
"And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” -- Luke 12:15
8 If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still. 9 The increase from the land is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.
10 Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
This too is meaningless.
11 As goods increase,
so do those who consume them.
And what benefit are they to the owner
except to feast his eyes on them?
12 The sleep of a laborer is sweet,
whether he eats little or much,
but the abundance of a rich man
permits him no sleep.
13 I have seen a grievous evil under the sun:
wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner,
14 or wealth lost through some misfortune,
so that when he has a son
there is nothing left for him.
15 Naked a man comes from his mother's womb,
and as he comes, so he departs.
He takes nothing from his labor
that he can carry in his hand.
16 This too is a grievous evil:
As a man comes, so he departs,
and what does he gain,
since he toils for the wind?
17 All his days he eats in darkness,
with great frustration, affliction and anger.
18 Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. 20 He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.
Ecclesiastes 5:8-20
Its like Spock once said: "Having is not always as desirable as wanting."
Gosh, really? Money doesn't buy happiness? I can't believe it! What an amazing idea! I mean, I've never heard this before! Thank goodness someone did a study on this new and profound concept so we could be enlightened.
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