Money Buys Anti-Sadness

The things that matter in life are those that you can remember in the moments prior to death. I anticipate some examples of such would be family, friends, enriching experiences, and whether I’d lived a purposeful existence. If I weren’t to wake up tomorrow, would I be satisfied with what I’d accomplished as of late? Would I be satisfied with the way I’d spent my time until then? Do any of them entail the societal conception of money? On the surface level, no, money doesn’t pop up in mind.

I’d imagine that a lonely king living in a marble castle disconnected from society wouldn’t exactly be happy. Neither would an individual who seeks pleasure in the purchase of new commodities that hold perceived value. Well, I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as some may find certain joy in luxury goods that otherwise provide no utility. While many may argue that the allure of money providing purchasing power, is a farce, there is a small misalignment with the interpretation of what happiness entails.

I believe happiness encompasses higher and lower pleasures. While I don’t entirely align with his ideology, John Stuart Mill’s moral framework known as Utilitarianism, proposes the idea of happiness conforming to two sorts:

a. Higher pleasures: Derived from the exercise of our higher faculties, such as the intellect, feelings, imagination, and moral sentiment. Examples include the pursuit of knowledge, art, and meaningful relationships.

b. Lower pleasures: Derived from the satisfaction of physical needs and carnal desires. Examples include overindulgence in food, smoking, gambling, etc.

Here’s what most argue:

Conclusion 1: In such a case, lower pleasures are most easily associated with money. After all, they are rarely obtained without some form of transactional process that often leaves individuals slaved to their own addictions.

Conclusion 2: Many would contrarily continue to describe how higher pleasures cannot be merely purchased, as many lower pleasures could. They cite “meaningful pursuits” to lack a monetary cost as these aren’t exactly physical objects.

However, my argument here, is that both higher and lower pleasures, can be bought with money. Here me out. Before diving into the subtleties of this argument, I think it’s important to recognize that, indeed, one can find happiness in just about any circumstance. Provided that one allows themselves to receive that happiness (openness to happiness is most certainly a determinant, but not the topic of this text), the social, physical, nor economic state of an individual is entirely contingent on their happiness. I could be happy if I was in the worst imaginable state possible. I just probably wouldn’t.

With that being said, let’s talk more pragmatically. C1 makes perfect sense. However, C2 fails to look beyond the shallow end of the pool, while the premise makes sense (yes, you cannot buy good times with friends), it holds a faulty assumption about how most people find happiness. I believe that there only exists happiness if one also experiences sadness (anti-happiness), a yin and yang. Anti-sadness is NOT happiness though, as one can be perfectly not sad, but also not happy. Some people have so much anti-happiness in their lives stemming from certain factors that pertain to money, that happiness is overwhelmed by the anti-happiness.

So, it’s not necessarily that those higher pleasures can be bought, but more so that they can be enjoyed since one doesn’t need to worry about staying economically alive. To put it bluntly, if I had the funds to never work a day in my life, I would be able to travel the world. So when I end up dying, if I had financial freedom, I don’t think I’d spare a single thought on money, but rather all the amazing things I could do because I had it. 

Money doesn’t buy happiness per-say, but it certainly buys anti-sadness.

Please criticize my: Clarity and structure. I don't think some sentences make too much sense in their context. They do to me because I wrote it and kinda just wrote what came to mind, and my mind makes sense to be, but that isn't necessarily the case for the reader.