“Whoever said money can’t buy happiness isn’t spending it right,” claim Lexus advertisements, presupposing that money can buy happiness. The notion that money is able to buy happiness has been echoed by millions of people who continually air that they would be much happier if they had a heavy purse. However, in fact, most of them complain about being unhappy when they obtain the expected wealth. Why? Because money cannot buy happiness and an increase in wealth even has a great potential for undermining one’s happiness.

       The seemingly unexpected discontent brought about by the increase in wealth can be well explained by the fact that the tendency to grow bored with and get used to what we have acquired is a deeply rooted human trait. The inability to stay satisfied is arguably one of the key reasons for primitive people moving out of their cosy caves and later on building the civilization we now inhabit. People believe money can offer them happiness by affording them to buy food, clothes, cars, and houses—all the things whose absence, they assume, hinder them from happiness. So far as those materials are concerned, people do experience and enjoy transient satisfaction the moment they get them. However, they will soon adjust to what they have owned and become dissatisfied and yearn once again for happiness. For instance, people who have strived for years amassing wealth in order to possess a decent house are likely to feel unhappy when they eventually gain the homeownership. It is because the happiness they initially envisaged is often overwhelmed by the need of cars as they prone to believe the shortening of the time of commute will reward them more happiness. With this vicious circle of being unable to stay satisfied carrying on, it won’t be a surprise to hear more complaints from them after they earn the cars. In this way, money fails to buy happiness. There are a great many stuffs, besides cars, that are capable of smashing the illusion that happiness is purchasable as humans have insatiable desires for happiness.

       However, people defend that they will not fancy for cars or other “luxuries” because they will be enough happy and contented if they have enough money to buy a house. Then, why are they unhappy when they have already been able to rent a room? Don’t they notice that they are already the happiest guys in this world in the eyes of the poorest who have no clean water to drink, no food to eat, and no one to turn to for help? Have they ever known that the poor invariably believe that they will be enormously happy if they have the money to rent a house that is far away from the rubbish dump and the stink of latrines? What the poorest need for renting a house is nothing but money and they don’t fancy for homeownership or other “luxuries”, too. Happiness is rather a feeling of content and gratitude than a house or a car that can be purchased by money.

Whether you spend it right or wrong, money buys no happiness and those who keep this in mind are more likely to discover happiness more easily than those who do not.