The Funds, Friends, and Faith of Happy People

In the article, Myers discusses many things that can correlate to someone’s happiness such as wealth and relationships.  It is interesting yet obvious that there is no real correlation between wealth and happiness. We’ve all heard the saying “money doesn’t buy happiness”. However, many people in the article agreed that having “a little more money [could make them] a little happier.”  So what’s the difference? I think the difference is in the lifestyle. I don’t think that most people can handle living a high maintenance, wealthy lifestyle, and would prefer to have an “average” lifestyle. Thus, having slightly more money would not put people over the top, yet would be enough to give an extra boost in confidence and morale. In other words, I believe that most would only prefer to be slightly above the average.

In the article, there are many discussions on what makes a person happy. The first statistic that surprised me was the fact that, in Detroit, 9 in 10 people selected a happy expression to portray their lives. Although this survey does not have a large sample size, I think that it greatly reflects on how most view their life. Maybe I’m a cynic, but I can’t really believe that there is this many people that think so highly of their lives. I am not saying that it is impossible to lead a happy life; however, I think that there are more than 10 percent of people that are in unhappy situations. Are people inflating their views on their lives? Or do people actually believe that they are living a happy life? What constitutes a happy life?

Overall, there doesn’t seem to be a conclusive reason to why someone is happy. That is completely expected and understandable. Happiness is subjective. I’d be afraid if happiness can be quantified or boosted artificially. We’d be living in a world similar to that of Brave New World. We all have different views, and constantly challenge each other’s views and ideas; it’s how we grow as people. People view their lives differently from one another, and appreciate their lives in their own ways. In the end, I think that it is up to yourselves to find some sort of happiness in your own lives in any shape or form.