Re: why do people keep wanting money even though it doesn't bring them happiness?
There are a lot of "happiness" studies that show that poor substance farmers in country X are much happier, even though they don't even have plumbing or electricity.
And it's true. They're pretty damn happy.
Ignorance and lack of options can be bliss. The problem is that once you're exposed to the world, once you see what is possible, it is impossible to go back to that state of ignorance and bliss.
For developed countries, it may not be money that brings you happiness directly, but it sure helps. Life is not that fun or happy when you are forced to live in dingy conditions, don't know if you can pay for food until your next paycheck, and can never even hope to try any hobbies or interests because you are broke. And what sucks even more is that you are surrounded by other people doing interesting things, living in nicer places, driving a nicer car, and vacationing in exotic countries. Then you turn on your TV and see even more people living a much better life than you. That is depressing.
While money doesn't buy happiness directly, life is a lot easier when you don't have financial pressures and it's a lot easier to be happy. Obviously if you are an investment banker and work sunrise to sundown you don't have the time for happiness because you don't have the time for life. But a person making $100,000 at their 40h/week job is - on average - going to be substantially happier than a person making $20,000 at their 40h/week job.
I went to a really expensive university that had tons of rich kids. While I can't tell with absolute certainly that the happy people were truly happy and depressed people were truly depressed, I found that the rich kids were a lot more happy. They never worried about their finances. They spent their time hanging out, dating, going on a lot more fun activities, lived in nice and pleasant housing, etc. The poorer kids spent their time putting in the hours at their jobs to pay for school, lived in crappy depressing shared apartments, didn't have the time or money to do a lot of the social activities, etc. The happy/sad/rich/poor split wasn't even close.
And when we all graduated, it was even more pronounced and it is how many social circles got broken up. The rick kids wanted to do X activities, but the poor kids had to work and could never afford stuff. Eventually, the rich kids stopped asking the poor kids and just stuck to their own. That's generally how things went down. Sure, I've met some happy poor kids and some depressed rich kids, but those were exceptions to the rule. And you know what is really, really depressing? The poor kid that is depressed. At least the depressed rich kid can fly away to trek Nepal or bang Euro hookers for 3 months to think about the meaning of their life and meaning of happiness. The poor kid is stuck in their rural town forever.
We all know that human relationships play a big role in happiness. And guess who has a much better shot at a hot and smart girlfriend? The poor kid living in a dingy apartment and driving a crap beater, or the rich kid living in a nice neighborhood and having a nice car? Yeah, there are exceptions... but the trend here is pretty clear too. That goes for guy friends as well. I'm pretty good friends with a few guys that a basically rich. They're pretty average in their looks, personality, and interests. But they don't just get the attention of women. They also get the attention of guys who also always want to hang out with them. They sort of have their own mini entourage. They get invited everywhere. People value their opinions much more. haha.
Tldr; for developed countries, "money doesn't bring you happiness" is what TV gurus tell stupid poor people to make them feel better.
Money is a lot simpler than happiness. Most people dont really know what will bring them happiness, but they do know that with money you can do almost anything so getting money is a good start.
