The lie almost all poor and middle class people believe - Bible talk

[jennifer_bloom]

People think money and the ability to buy things like chocolate ice cream or designer bags or vacation souvenirs will bring them happiness, that if they are swimming in spas and drinking martinis everyday they will be happy.

But rich people know that money only buys happiness when you sacrifice something to gain it. Have you ever wanted a romantic relationship with somebody and when you finally got the person you realized they did not make you happy? Have you ever craved a food item, and after eating it realized it was mediocre and plain tasting? Have you ever worked hard at something and once you achieved it, realized it did not satisfy you?

The only thing that truly satisfies is humility and love and ethical living. No food item or romantic partner or material benefit can satisfy you long term, it can only succeed in giving you the illusion it satisfies you based on your inability to immediately or without difficulty, attain it.

So it isn’t the vacation or the camping trip that made you happy, it’s the time and energy you put into preparing and earning and planning and sacrificing for that vacation that made you happy. This is why it’s so common for the super rich to abandon a life of indulgence and pursue humanitarian work instead, and if they have the brains for it, they may also pursue medical careers: having access to wealth, they realize that wealth does not make them happy but that love and kindness does.

[Yaaten]

The Argument from Desire is what this is. It basically goes like this:
All human needs, wants and desires, and all our cravings, can be satisfied in one way or another. Examples - hunger is satisfied by food, thirst by water (or beer, schnapps...), if you're tired you sleep, and if you're horny you screw (sorry if that's a bit crude, but you know what I mean).
People desire wealth because they believe, as you have pointed out here, that it will make them "happy", but I would go further than that and argue they believe that it will fill the big, wide empty hole that exists in their soul. People yearn for something, but they know not what, and so what they chase instead are silly dreams.
There is of course only one overwhelming desire, one goal in life that is unattainable here on this Earth, but most people in the West are in serious denial about it. It's just too uncomfortable a thought, and so off they go with their distractions, their constant need to be "busy" in their lives, their electronic gadgets, their schedules, their deadlines, their "friends", hobbies and shallow obsessions.
But it won't work. You can't fool yourself 100% of the time. There will come a time in everyone's lives when the trick just doesn't work anymore, and you either make the necessary changes or you off yourself. Many turn to drugs, or "reality" T. V., or fringe politics and become infantile SJWs, but the reality is that you can't escape from reality. People need the divine in their lives, they need more than just this. A priest may say that "eternity is calling", and it's true, it is.

[Jjpayne]

I think the simple nutshell answer to this is that celebrities get depressed and commit suicide. If money were truly the answer to everything, this would not happen. In addition, when has anything you ever bought kept you fully satisfied? I feel like once you buy something, it can use it's interest within the same day and im some cases as soon as you buy it. There are clear keys that help us to have meaning and two of the big ones is purpose and being social aka helping and interacting with others. Those two things, are much healthier and better than simply spending money

[Jjpayne]

Thank you for the mho 😊

[Oigit]

The rich and powerful are there to give the middle class a dream to work towards. The poor and there to create fear in the middle class. So that the middle class will continue to work for the benefit of the people on top. Simply because they don't want to end up living in poverty. The idea that you can buy something happiness and the idea that the label on something makes it better then the rest is simply rampant consumerism. The same rampant consumerism that benefits the people on top.

When it comes right down to it the poor and middle class are slaves to the same machine. You can also say it's true of the majority of the rich and powerful. The only differences between the three is the amount of chain around their neck.

The idea that working hard is a guarantee of having a good life is a complete joke and a idea that is passed around by people with blinders on are quick to talk about. I was raised by a single mother with two kids. My mother was diagnosed with cancer on her teens and has had several bouts of other cancers as well. My mother would often work 60 to 80 hours a week. She would also work her way through both chemo and radiation treatments. She worked harder and endured more then a lot of people and always had next to nothing to show for it. More often then not my brother and I where simply grateful to have a rundown roof over our head, with hardly any lights on and cheap food in our belly.

[LittleTurtleDuck]

Money makes happy untill you gain a certain amount:

If you have enough to provide for yourself and occasionally splurge you will be happy, because there are no worries but still goals.

But if you have so much that you "could" buy everything but you realise you can't, hats when it doesn't make happy anymore: there are no more goals, wich create an identity problem.

Either end of the spectrum (poor or rich) doesn't make you happy, it's about balance.

Also, you are most likely the most happy when you spend money on experiences or to help others.

[purplepoppy]

This is a good example of why religion is inherently evil. Poor people don't complain they don't have enough money for tropical holidays they complain their wages force them to choose to between paying a bill or feeding themselves. This crap that money doesn't make you happy is just a ploy to stop them demanding a fairer wage

[K-I-S-S]

Exactly, with money you get to buy back your life from a 9-5 job. That is already worth some happiness

[jennifer_bloom]

@K-I-S-S I had plenty of poor people hate me for having money, don’t mistake a lack of money for a lack of appetite and greed. One really poor guy mocked me saying I was selfish for eating at McDonalds, that I was a foolish for wasting my money on things I did not need.

[K-I-S-S]

Some people are just assholes, regardless of income.
I actually prefer these people over the snakes who pretend to be your friends.

[HikerDude]

This is true, but you have this deal backwards. It's usually wealthy people who believe the most in the power of wealth to create satisfaction in their lives. That's what drove them to become wealthy in the first place. Millions of poor people around the world are perfectly happy being poor, and fully realize that money can buy items, not states of being.

[normalice]

Not really. What poor people believe is if they didn't have to choose between starvation and eviction they could be comfortable enough to pursue happiness.

[Raveagit]

Nope. Happiness is a cycle and not the goal in the first place. Kiddy pool shallow.

[badfurday2020]

Money does in fact buy happiness just not a crazy amount. If everyone in the world had enough money to afford all of their bills and go on vacation during the summer then everyone would be happy. No one needs 600 million dollors or 50 billion dollars

[jimmy2]

Its the love of money thst is the root of evil

[collie22]

Jennifer is that you in the picture?

[jennifer_bloom]

No, it’s the image that appeared when I googled the word pleasure. I’m Chinese.

[collie22]

okay

[Massageman]

Your content seems to oppose your headline.

[Hydra6544]

Money can’t buy happiness.

[blufalcon]

I don't know what your talking about