I'd say that although having enough money can't make people happy, <em>not</em> having enough money can certainly make people unhappy. Obviously, this is especially true if you need the money for basic things like medical care, decent food, transportation, etc. It's also true if a lack of money means you don't have time to do the things you enjoy, because you spend too many hours working just in order to pay your bills.

I definitely don't think you have to be rich to be happy, or that you'll be happy just because you're rich. A rich person and a "middle class" person probably have equal chances of being happy. But I think a rich person has better chances of being happy than someone who's trying to get by on minimum wage, or struggling to pay off huge amounts of debt.

Living a life accumulating “stuff” is never enough. We will always want more. We want a bigger house or a newer car, more clothes, more vacations to go on. Happiness comes from within not from the things we acquire. Instead of distracting ourselves with the next better thing we can buy, or do, we need to accept the present moment. What do we do when we can’t sleep or are bored?We pick up our cell , go on social media, game,Snack, watch a movie. Right!?! We are constantly trying to distract ourselves from the present moment. The happiness is temporary because in a little while we will start suffering again and start the same habits again.Sounds like I’m getting away from the question, but it’s all the same. With Money we can buy more things to distract ourselves.I’m not saying we shouldn’t have goals or that money is not necessary or even bad. I’m saying the pursuit of money will not bring lasting happiness. Joy of life starts when we accept ourselves as we are and accept the present moment as it is. Next time you are feeling bored laying in bed, driving your car, sitting at home, take a minute to inventory all that you have accumulated in your life and ask yourself if it has created lasting joy in your life.

PS try not taking your cell phone with you In the bathroom.

Yes, money can't buy certain things including happiness. What it does buy are material things and services. Even services have a material aspect in their delivery. What money cannot buy are particular states of the mind such as happiness, peace and contentment.

One must of course have sufficient money that allows buying the goods and services which facilitate such states of mind up to an extent. Facilitate, but never really purchase or cause directly. Beyond that limit, money actually becomes counterproductive.

The paradox of money is that it's often taken as an end in itself rather than the means to an end. But the human reality doesn't work that way. To use a term from economics, even money has a marginal utility value beyond which it starts acquiring negative worth instead of positive.

Rich people are always bothered about their bank balance, how to preserve and enhance it, how not to lose it. That constant worry and the ensuing endless effort running around after more results not in happiness, but the precise opposite. It's literally tantalizing like the Greek mythical figure Tantalus himself, where the water disappears as soon as one tries to drink it.

That explains the paradox why poor people are often happier than the rich. They neither have anything to lose, nor really the means to acquire more. They learn to make peace with that fact. As long as they have something to eat and a shelter over their heads, they have nothing more to worry about. In that worry free state, even simple things delight them in a way that our own jaded thinking never can. You may not believe this, but I've actually seen happy homeless people who live on a pavement.

@ᑎᗩDᗩ’s eager4 winter.. I once read a news about a CEO who jumped from the 50th floor for no apparent reason so I guess depression also afflicts the rich.