Can You Be Happy Without Money?

I got the idea for this thread from the Abortion Thread.

They say money can't buy happiness, and most people accept that, but is it possible to be happy without money? Rather, is it possible for the average person to be happy without money?

Sure, not everyone needs a high-definition TV that takes up an entire wall or a three-story house with four cars in the garage, but can anybody really be happy if every month, they run out of food before they get their next check? Can anybody living in their car truly be happy? Is it possible to spend 40 hours a week at work, spend all your money paying bills, and never buy a single thing for yourself (not even the food you like), and be happy?

There are poor people who don't have much but seem happy. Are they only putting on a front? Are they lying to themselves so they don't get depressed over their lives?

Big question - is it possible to say that you can be poor but happy if you are not poor?

Yea, to a degree. No to a degree.

I never lived a life where I could get whatever I wanted. A lot of time Christmas included one or two things picked up from a yard sale like a board game or something. Other Christmas's we just didn't celebrate it at all.

My mom always worked very hard to support herself and I.
I can't ever say that I felt I was jipped in life though. I have values that a lot of other people don't seem to have or notice.

Even now, living on my own with fpod. Money's tight with me not having a job and we can't get the amount of food we'd like, or the things we need (currently I'm sitting on the floor with my desktop computer on the coffee table) but it's just one of those things you have to get over.

It's not that I feel like people would put up a front, because there are times and there were times when my mom broke down because she was tired of working so hard and gaining so little. I mean, she had to battle cancer twice and an on going chronic disease.

Everybody gets down, but most of the time she's a very happy person who enjoys her life with her friends and family.

I'm certainly happy to be here with somebody I care about and have enjoy myself with. Money is a luxury, but it's also a vital part of living. Without money you can't eat or live.

You need at least a little money to get the foundation, but after that money is a luxury.

While money is not everything, without it you're nothing...

I'll just go with that. Like Ziggy said, you need at least a little money to get the foundation, but after that money is a luxury. How can anyone be happy, or any other deep emotions if it takes their all even to cling to life? So yeah at the very least our basic survival needs need to be taken care of...and the simplest way to do so is to possess some amount of money.

But I do prefer to have more than just the basic though...I'd like to always be able to read good books, live in a house that I think is comfy enough, and all that feeble desires...so that I can keep this lil' happiness I have.

Money, at least enough to sustain yourself, is a necessity. I believe that without it, average people cannot be happy. However, there are families that literally have almost nothing and still manage to find happiness in some aspects of life, which truly amazes me.

I cannot speak at the same level as Ziggy, as through-out my life, I have been very well-taken care of financially, in a sense that I was able to get what I need and more.

Honestly, I think that I would not be very happy without money. I probably wouldn't be able to live with the bare minimums of life.

they say money can't buy happiness but when I have to work for my money for tons of hours, nothing feels more empowering than blowing that pay checks on video games. when someone like a relative or something gives me money when I spend it I never feel as good as when I spend money I worked for. So i guess making money can make you feel better about yourself.

That's very true. I felt like a part of me died when my ipod fell for the first time on concrete and got scratched up. I got it from my first job working at Subway Restaurant and it took 2 paychecks to get it.

I'll never forget the time I went to take summer classes in high school for extra credits and this guy dropped his friends video ipod (I just had a nano) and his friend was like shit shit shit shit I'm sorry dude! And the guy seriously said 'nah, don't worry about it. If it breaks my mom will just get me another one. This is my second ipod.'

I felt like stabbing the kid.
My dad gave me the false impression of getting me a car for the longest time and it was really nice feeling. But when he never went through with it (not surprising, he never did anything else for me, I was unsure why he was bothering then) I got myself a car, with my own credit, and so forth. Having my own car that I bought by myself feels amazing.

There's nothing wrong with being happy about your achievements or being happy about working for something. It's your reward for working hard.

That's the only thing I think people who live well off don't get to experience. When wealthier families give their child everything, they don't get to experience that self satisfaction that they were able to do something by themselves and how much it pays off.

They don't get to appreciate the things they have then.

WOW there's a lot of words here!
I'm sorry if I re-state what someone else said in this thread, but I don't like to read large blocks of text.

The answer is simple: Where do you live?

-A major metropolitan area? Then yes, money can give you happiness.
--A quaint cabin miles away from a quaint town where everyone knows each other's names? Then not really. Money can't give you shit there.

What the phrase means is that love in all its forms is more important than meterial wealth. Only an idiot would believe an absolute loss of currency would make a man/woman just as happy as being rich.

Money is happiness. It provides you everything! Homeless make friends with homeless but they must be miserable on the streets. Food, Clothing, Shelter, and Utilities are provided to us with exchange of money. Material goods we desire for example: Cable, Internet, Video Games, Hobbies, etc. etc. When you seek companionship with friends or a lover that is on your actions and not money but having money allows these relationships to grow. Why? Don't you need to look nice? Don't you need to have a decent home to show them? Don't you need transportation to meet with them? Don't you need a phone (house or cell) to communicate with them? Don't you wish to pick up the tab and be nice instead of mooching!? But like I said if you desire relationships your actions are also part of this equation. Backpackers who travel the world require money. They work cruddy jobs everywhere to get money and live in Hostels to travel the world cheaply and see everything! So no. No money = no happiness... unless you like being homeless.

Sometimes yeah, sometimes don't.

I think the only way a person without money can live happily, is if that person were totally ignorant of the existence of currency.

An example of this is a movie titled "The Gods Must Be Crazy". The tribe of bushmen learn of a hitherto unknown phenomenon they never experienced before, property, and they soon find themselves experiencing things they never had before: jealousy, envy, anger, hatred, even violence .

Humans will always be jealous because of the need to survive,but in this case the need to fulfill one's comfort level.

Money can't buy happiness....
sometime there is something priceless that u can't buy using money....
is not money that bring happiness...

I was happy both poor or not poor....
because i was satisfied with who i was at the time....

Yeah, but can you survive without money? Would you be happy to always be thinking about how little you have and how much you can or cannot spend? Would you be able to be happy with those thoughts constantly on the back of your head? Sure there can be things to cheer you up, but it won't change the fact that you are suffering because of wealth problems.
I'm not saying money is happiness, but the lack of it can shake up your mood.

Absolutely though, money did improve bunch of things but it isn't the object alone but the deal and government behind it. But let's see for no money thing, for example art talent, no matter what teacher or tool you dealed money with, you won't become a good artist unless you do something yourself.

Yes, absolutely. Poor people find comfort and pride in being able to make do with as little as they have; no pride as imperious and towering as that of the serf. They might word it differently - "focusing on the small joys in life", "money can't buy happiness", etc - but essentially, poor people are lying to themselves to make up for their lack of status and wealth. If this lie goes far enough as to become a powerful and compelling delusion, then yes, people can be happy without money.

Throwing something else into the mix:

Was the Buddha happy (after he gave up all his belongings and such)?

Is it possible to be so happy with certain aspects of life that your usually undesirable food and shelter seem like no problem? Was the Buddha, despite not having a nice home (or, really, a physical home at all) or great food, truly happy?

To give an example - I have been hungry yet happy before. I had no food in my stomach, but I was happy because I was surrounded by love and friendship and (relative) peace of mind. Though I was stressed out by the lack of food, I was relaxed and calm because I was in a good place. Not a good place in a physical sense, but in an emotional and mental sense.

If I was able to be happy without food, is it not possible that another person could be happy without food or shelter or any other comforts that most people rely upon?

Note: I made sure to say that the topic was about "average" people in the starting post so that we could talk generally about the subject. With this post, I am changing gears and talking less about the average people in the world and more about the people who are a little different. Does the average person need a decent home to be happy? Yes. But what about the special cases, the people who have little to nothing but still seem to be happy, perhaps because of something that isn't physical but spiritual or mental? Are those special people truly happy, or are they only being optimistic? Another example of such a person - Mother Teresa, who sacrificed a lot of comforts in order to care for others but never seemed saddened by her own losses. Was she really happy?

I believe it is possible so long as they have something else to occupy themselves with.
In the case of Mother Teresa, she believed that she was living for others and God, and thus derived her happiness from the happiness and relief of others.Even in your story, it's because you were occupied with the atmosphere that you were happy.

Mother Teresa and Buddha were happy because they were doing what they thought they should. So, to answer your question, yes it is possible with the few unique people in the world(since you're not asking about the average person anymore).

Not at all. I'm very materialistic, and pretty self-centered as well. I'm not going to try to go on my ethical pedestal and try to come up with some half-assed attempt to look better. I'm greedy and selfish and there is no way I'd enjoy life or be happy without money.

Like they said Money can't buy happiness
but then again without money you can't survive
to have Food we need Money Right
same goes to your house we need to pay for it
and to the other expense we use to survive.



but those who have a lot of money (Rich people)
probably to them money Can't really buy happiness
money is useless. (Well not all of them)

How exactly are you nothing without it? Your still the same person with or without money.


Seriously? I’ll use an old friend from high school as an example. Having no money at all and really only eating what we gave him at lunch and when he came over he was happy. I know this because one day towards graduation I asked him if he was happy. He said as long as my sister is alright then I’m the happiest man on earth. He was a selfless kind of guy who would do anything for his sister and friends. I’ve known him for almost 7 years now and he’s still poorer than shit living in an apartment basement right now, and there is no way anyone could say he isn’t happy. He told me about things you don’t tell anyone, but your closet friend if he wasn’t happy I would know.

So my answer is no, money is only as valuable as you make it. You don’t need money to survive you need food you need shelter but nowhere does it say you need money. There are ways of getting by in this world without money.

That fits what I argued perfectly: It's a delusion. The fist of Kantianism stops for no-one: His own situation is bad, so he chains his happiness to the well-being of a loved one, and voilà, a reason for happiness, and by extension life, arrives. Oldest story in the book.