Everyone knows that money doesn’t buy happiness. If you’re a preacher and you’re trying to impress that point, every millionaire in your congregation will agree, it doesn’t. Probably every millionaire ever will agree, no matter how much money they have, or how much time they spend tending that money.

That’s because they understand the link between money and happiness is non-defined. But somehow at the same time we know it’s till there. There’s still some way that people go from wealth to happiness in their heads.

Personally, I think how a person gets there is a sign of the times they live in and what those times value. Money once could buy you a donkey or a camel, and though it can still buy you a camel, most people eschew livestock in favour of an automobile. Most. There are still people who insist on riding a camel in New York, but they’re like rebelious goth/punk kids at a conservative Presbyterian church.

Let me illustrate. What did people in strongly paternal societies value? Well, they’re built around family and male leadership and interdependance, and status at least as far as the story goes. In today’s society, most of our favorite buzzwords are about independance and free living and status.

So maybe people don’t think that their money can make them happy in so many words, but they most certainly used to think it would buy them status and help ensure their family was provided for and that they could exercise leadership in a greater extent and that due to their interdependance as a society, more people would have to rely on them. And in a sense, it can give them those things, just not very well. It’s like buying a car with pesos. It’s not going to get you very far, although maybe you like the Volkswagen Beetle. So the route to happiness is paved with gold, just, you need to get some other things first.

And as we know, money does not a happy family make, nor does it buy influence very well, and just because you have some cash doesn’t mean people actually like depending on you. But at least people were pushing for a lofty goal, or the form of a lofty goal.

We moderns and postmoderns have it a lot worse, because not only does money still not lead to happiness, but now our goals suck the monkey’s droppings too. So even if you do have the money, the dots don’t lead to happiness no matter how you slice them. Independance is a crappy idea, and free living is pretty darn boring after a while, and the status that you can get still doesn’t really mean anything unless it’s built on who you are. We’re screwed two ways. Isn’t that just fun?

dan (doesn’t advocate being poor for the heck of it, but geez, this whole wealth thing is pretty overhyped)

Tags: polemics, scripture