Is Money the Root of Evil?
In an article written by Sam Lewis of the Great Good Magazine, he details his belief in the complication of creating a happy society. As a piece of evidence, he points to how, in 1972, the former king of Bhutan stated that Gross National Happiness was overall a greater determinant in seeing how far a particular society has come along rather than Gross National Product (Lewis). They were the first Buddhist nation to focus primarily on the happiness of its people and then from there aimed to create policies/regulations that would go in-line with their central idea of maintaining a happy society.
With money becoming less of a concern, where does this allow a community to grow in ways that they may have not before? I take into consideration my life and how, with being an American, money is at the core of it. It makes sense: in a capitalistic society such as the United States, should money not be the end goal to which we work towards? Our nation makes people seem that those who want a more relaxed style of life, one that is not work-centric, are the actual crazy ones instead of those who work blindly and never turn their heads.
The United States government and many large-scale corporations could care less about what the Gross National Happiness of our land is. Again, with money being at the core of our community and it breathing life into the nature of what our society comprises, it becomes clear that for the U.S. Gross National Product is the scale upon which we measure our progress. The economy seems to serve as a baseline for how happy or sad we are; despite having no direct effect on our lives besides monetary value, with our lives/happiness being in-tandem with one another, we begin to unravel the warped perspective that becomes apparent for America: money = happiness.
Going back to the idea that Lewis wrote about in discerning the king of Bhutan’s way of thinking, what if we adapted it to the United State’s standards? IF money does in fact equate to happiness for us, would there ever be an amount that one could have of monetary value that would release them from the stresses that are placed on them by our capitalistic approach? I would say no. Just look at billionaires nowadays. Despite some giving away a good chunk of their fortune, does one truly think that if I were to ask Jeff Bezos versus some broke college kid living on my street about their happiness that their answers would solely differ because Bezos is rich? I simply do not see that. Yet, it is all I can see when staring at the face of our capitalist society; in a very real way, it is what capitalism convinces us is real.
If no amount of money could bring everlasting joy, then I would argue that, for the United States, the search for happiness will, too, be endless. Waking up every day and doing so for the sole purpose of needing money to sustain life is not how any society should operate. However, even in having this conversation, I cannot quite put my finger on what could be the end-all solution. Flipping our society upside down and starting with a new system is not an option that is viable because our world is too rooted in the system we currently have. The only way to let light shine on what our new world could be would be in making changes, substantial ones, to our current structure. Even then, I find it difficult to believe that much will change with capitalism continuing to sit at the root of it all.
In having a conversation about happiness, I believe that context about a particular society gives aid in ascertaining what matters most, for what matters most is generally where the happiness is born from. For us in the United States, our whole world is dependent upon money. But, I do not believe that happiness can be found in money. It will help along the route that leads one to being happy, but it is not an emotion or a representation of something larger and it is certainly not an entity to which people could base their happiness off of, yet it has happened. Money has, in a sense, always and will continue to shift the paradigm for what we know as happiness. Until money is eliminated from the equation, the base of it will never change.
Lewis, Sam. “Creating a Happy Society Is More Complicated Than We Think”. Greater Good Magazine, https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/creating_a_happy_society_is_more_complicated_than_we_think.
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