Money. is there a relation between happiness and money?

In the society that we live, capitalist, it is claimed that happiness can be reached with money. People generally consider that going shopping will reduce their suffer, release stress and eventuallymake them happier because they now have what they desired. But is there a relation between happiness and money?

First of all we should ask ourselves what is happiness? By defining the wordhappiness three things come to my mind: love, hope and having a place at this world. The above are related because having hope, desire, of being someone in this world by achieving a dream next to the peopleyou love and care for will in due course bring you “long-run” happiness. Therefore money can only provide as of momentary happiness every time we buy something that society ‘force’ us to purchase inorder for us not to feel excluded. But do we really need these items? Can we be happy without them? It can’t be denied that it feels great having them, however they are not necessities thus we can livewithout them.

Poor countries such as Nepal and Bhutan fight against hunger every day; however studies done by world wide privileged universities prove that the habitants do not suffer of chronicledepression nor are more unhappy than non third-world countries’ people, even though they do not have a decent shelter, transport and money. This is due to the fact that they are used to thislifestyle. However, poor people still have problems but in another scale due to the cultural differences, therefore happiness does not consist only in having a heavy wallet, it is about personal fulfillmentobtained by relations rich of emotions and respect with others, in other words feeling loved and having the desire of living another day.

Once I read a story1 about a wealthy father that decided totake his son on a trip to the countryside with a purpose to show his son how poor the people can be. They spent a couple of days and nights in the farm of a poor family. On their return from their...