Can Money Buy Happiness Essay Exampl

Throughout time, one of the most popular debates is if money can bring all of the happiness one individual might need or not. Jane Austen once stated, “A large income is the best recipe for the happiness I ever heard of”. Obtaining bountiful amounts of money can trigger the same neurotransmitters in your brain that harmful drugs like cocaine can; this neurotransmitter is known as dopamine. The more dopamine present in our brain, the more “happiness” or so-called pleasure we feel. We become addicted to this feeling and gratification. After you earn the same income for some time or abuse cocaine, your dopamine levels no longer increase; unfortunately, this causes many physically and psychologically to crave the extravagant feeling dopamine provides. Sooner or later, this pleasure is needed to obtain their “happiness” as one becomes addicted. This greed that is created overthrows one’s brain where their judgment, morals, and rationalization will all be compromised, and they no longer care about any surrounding collateral damage, as long as they receive more of what they desire most. Therefore, throughout history and literature, it is proven the previously declared quote is counterfactual. Money only brings forth power and high self-esteem, not love nor merriment.

Moreover, in the parable, "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" written by Leo Tolstoy, the main character, Pahom, struggled with never feeling fulfilled with his life. Pahom was a peasant living on a small acreage in Russia. Over time, he obtained acres upon acres of land, yet he always yearned for more. Soon, his land nor family did not bring him the satisfaction he desired, so he pushed himself to his limits to find and buy more acreage. Pahom sold his first forty acres of land and relocated his family to and abode with 125 acres wherein the beginning “Pahom was pleased with it all, but when he got used to it he began to think that even here he had not enough land” (Chapter IV). Consequently, the desire for more grew within and his greed overcame him. Pahom was only able to enjoy the beginning moments of his new acreage. However, soon after he was settled, he wished for more. He understood the more land he had, the more money he was capable of making; Pahom could not be satisfied. He focused all of his love to a matter that was of an unimportance compared to his family and living a healthy life. Due to this, it resulted in his ultimate downfall where he resulted laying in a grave with “six feet from his head to his heels” of land (Chapter IX). To put into context, the author leaves the readers to ponder over the fact that if Pahom just stopped for a moment to realize all of the blessings he had received and to be grateful for them, he could have lived a simple life with his love directed in the correct place, towards his family; he would have had the chance to be a better husband and father. Clearly, all the land this man really needed in the end, was enough for his simple grave.

Additionally, within "Was it a Dream?" by Guy de Maupassant, an important moral was displayed. A discomposed man was deep within his conscious, dreaming of visiting his deceased love at her grave one evening. ‘Tween his dream, he wandered aimlessly around a graveyard searching for her grave. During this time, he reflected upon other people’s lives who also laid deceased in those graves beneath the soil. He noted he could see the evil people who “had been the tormentors of their neighbors-malicious, dishonest, hypocrites, liars, rogues” and those who “performed every disgraceful, every abominable action” that was possible. On the other hand, he also saw the innocent people including “good fathers”, “faithful wives”, “devoted sons”, “chaste daughters”, and “honest tradesmen” (Was it a Dream?). Maupassant reveals we are all the same in the end; plus, no one is able to outlive death. Each person will reach the finale of their lives, death; and each individual will be lowered into the ground. Rather you lived your life as a felon or billionaire, or if you lived in poverty or solitude, we cannot take our rags nor riches to the grave. Once we leave our physical bodies, all physical matter remains on Earth; there is nothing tangible we are granted to bring with us beyond the tomb. In sum, it is displayed we should not worry about wealth during this lifetime, but focus on every precious moment. We need to understand where love should be properly directed, to the people in our lives and our precious ones. It is crucial to touch one another’s lives and make a difference, not to focus all time and energy on earning a material that is not infinite past death. In sum, by focusing on these important things, you can receive all of the happiness and blessings you could ever need.

However, as we look back in history, we can see that desire for wealth dates back thousands of years, clear to the reign of the Egyptians. Within a world history class, students learned about this specific period. Ancient Egyptians were quite dedicated to the afterlife. Once one of their own would die, they would complete a process called mummification. Next, they would place the newly mummified body into a tomb with all considered “important” possessions ranging from jewels to dishes. Egyptians deeply believed they would journey to a different world and begin a new life. Hense, they preserved the deceased bodies for the next life and filled the tombs with items they would need in the afterlife. In the end, the tombs that have been discovered in the current era prove that there is no afterlife where the Egyptians would bring their treasured items; therefore these items had no redeeming value to these people after they died. As the Ancient Egyptians have demonstrated, the wealth you accumulate during life does not accompany one in the afterlife, but merely turns into dust just as we do. With this being being stated, we must treasure our time on this Earth, for it does not carry on after we pass away.

In conclusion, many may have dreams and hopes for money to be the solution to find happiness, but will quickly be let down as they realize money is not the answer. It is correct that money is the fondation to survival in order to pay for a house, food, and health care to support your family; however, a surplus income will turn many greedy and into money addicts. To conclude, money is of great importance in the 21st century, but we must not let it consume us and control our actions. Treasure your family and friends, treat others with respect, and lastly, make a difference. Money may provide excessive amounts of dopamine and a fruitful life/“afterlife”, but in the end, it results as a four by six foot grave and a pile of dust. We all begin the same, and we all end the same.