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August 1, 2008
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=========================== TODAY'S ARTICLE ==========================
How Money Buys Happiness, by Rubel Shelly
Researchers at Harvard Business School and the University of British
Columbia are challenging the old, shop-worn thesis that money can't buy
happiness. At least, they are challenging us to think about how we use
money and how its use for unselfish reasons relates to one's personal
happiness.
There is certainly nothing appealing or spiritual about poverty. Both
the Bible and common sense say that poverty tempts one not only to envy
but to stealing and violence. So there is a considerable body of
research that says people become happier as they move from being very
poor to lower middle class. All of us are more content with a life that
has basic needs met, lets us feed and educate our children, and be free
of constant worry over clothes and shelter.
That same body of research says that the impact on happiness is
marginal to imaginary when people get above the poverty line. A
whopping raise for the person making $45,000 to $100,000 won't make her
healthy, make his siblings any easier to live with, or fix their
marriage. Increments of monetary increase in this range are, in fact,
the ones that frequently come laden with stress.
It is here that we encounter one of the great paradoxes of modern life:
the people who spend so much of their time in the pursuit of more and
more money seem to experience dramatically diminishing returns in
personal fulfillment and joy with life. This is surely why we say money
doesn't buy happiness.
Put your money on another's need.
But now let's go back to the work of those researchers I mentioned
earlier. As published in the March 21, 2008, issue of Science, their
findings support the claim that money does buy happiness when it is
spent on someone else. "Our findings suggest that very minor
alterations in spending allocations -- as little as $5 in our final
study -- may be sufficient to produce non-trivial gains in happiness on
a given day," said Dr. Michael Norton. In other words, it isn't having
more money that makes people happier so much as how they choose to
spend their money. Spending on gifts to friends, educating young
people, or sending kids to summer camp produces greater happiness for
someone than, say, buying a flat-screen TV or a computer with more
bells and whistles.
But didn't we already know that? It isn't money but the love of money
that the Bible condemns so emphatically. There is no sin in working
hard to provide for oneself, but greed and selfishness are sins of the
greatest magnitude.
If you'd like to buy some happiness, put your money on another's need.
Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in
good works and should give generously to those in need, always
being ready to share with others whatever God has given them. By
doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good
foundation for the future so that they may take hold of real life (1
Timothy 6:18-19 NLT).
---------
(c) 2008 Used by permission. From Rubel Shelly <rshelly@rc.edu>'s
"FAX of Life" printed each Tuesday. See Faith Matters for
previous issues of the "FAX of Life."
RELATED LINKS:
* Happiness?
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200702/20070222_happiness.html
* The Flow
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200711/20071106_theflow.html
* Exercising the Spirit: Generosity
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200607/20060730_generostiy.html
* RubelShelly.com
http://www.rubelshelly.com/
This article can be found on the web at:
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200808/20080801_buyhappiness.html
=========================== FEATURED PRODUCT =========================
SIMPLY CHRISTIAN: WHY CHRISTIANITY MAKES SENSE, by N. T. Wright
Destined to become a classic alongside Lewis's Mere Christianity - a
fascinating and accessible apologetic for modern seekers.
http://shopping.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/link?255
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