Jobs --> Money!

Having spent the last few entries writing about work and jobs, it's time for the thing that (sometimes) comes after work - money. We discussed some very surprising facts about money. Did you know that you have to earn 2800 euros per month to be included in the richest 1% of the world's population? Everyone here thought that was a staggering fact. The downside is that about 40% of the people in the world live with less than 2,50 dollars per day (that's 75 dollars or 55 euros per month).

But can money buy happiness? That was our topic when we watched the interesting documentary film The Queen of Versailles. Here's what the BigCola pupils thought.

Can money buy happiness?

Humans have used money for a long time. At first it was squirrel skins or something alike or people simply bartered their goods. Today we use paper bills and coins as currency. Despite the fact that we have used all kinds of things as payment people have always liked to buy good looking jewellery or beautiful clothes but does it make you happy when you buy them.

I think that for poor people money can definitely buy happiness because they haven’t been on luxurous vacations or bought things that they’ve always wanted because they couldn’t afford it. Some people can’t even afford to buy food to their family and if they would get a little extra money they would be very happy to stay alive and not die of starvation. For rich people I think it’s quite different. They’ve always gotten whatever they want whenever they want and they have always been able to eat their stomach full. At a later age they will not get joy from new things and their life will sometimes be less happy than the poor people’s lives.

Some people think that money can never buy happiness because we don’t really need fancy stuff to make us happy. Instead interacting with people, laughing with your friends and having a good time will make you happy. I agree with them but I also think that for someone buying something can bring happiness.

All in all I think that it’s possible for many who are not so rich and probably for many rich people as well to buy happiness.

Wayne Teller

In the world there’s many different kind of people. There’s rich, poor and somewhere between them. You really can’t tell whose are happy and whose not. Does happiness really depend on money?

I think that money can’t buy happiness. Money can buy things what you need to stay alive or makes you happy temporary. What really make people happy are other people and the things you do. Some rich people who have friends and family can say that they are happy, but that doesn’t maybe have anything to do with money. You don’t make friends with money, but with your own personality and just being who you are. People who don’t have a lot of money can be much happier than some really rich people. In the end, money is just an object wich you can buy another objects.

Jane Lauper

We watched a movie last week in class. It was about a family that had lots of money but lost almost everything because of America’s stock market went down.

In my opinion you can be happy without money. Of course you need money to buy food and necessary clothes and stuff. But you don’t need like a million euros or dollars to be happy, but with that money you are in a quite safe situation for taxes and those things.

Here in Finland there are lots of people that have average incoming. That’s about 3200 euros per month. In Finland you are marked as ‘’poor’’ if your incoming is 1600 or lower. But, can those ‘’poor’’ people live a happy life? I think they can. If a poor family’s children like to play football, he can play it because it’s not such an expensive hobby.

Some of the rich people may think that poor people can’t live a happy life because of little money. Rich children’s parents can buy them almost everything and they can play any sport they want, expensive or cheap.

So in my opinion being a poor in some cases doesn’t make life bad. In those African countries that people need to almost fight for water and food the life is not happy. But here in Finland and other countries that don’t have starvation, the people can live a happy life even if you were poor or rich.

Max Corvin

I think that money can’t buy happiness. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor you can still be happy or sad, but rich people don’t have to worry about money and poor people are maybe worrying about money. I think that if you don’t have money you should think other things that are good in your life right now. Some people think that they can’t do anything if they don’t have that much money. If rich people would be put for a week to live in poor people’s life maybe they would understand that they do not need everything in the world and would start to save that use.

Iris Hill

Last week we watched a documentary in class. It was about David Siegel’s family and company. David Siegel owns the world’s largest timeshare company and his businesses went really good, until the stock market crash came. He lost almost everything and his family was confused and didn’t know how to live without all the cleaners and babysitters.

Can money buy happiness? I think that you can have happiness without money, but you can buy those little and big things with money, and they make you happy. But if your whole world is about money, then you should think that what has gone wrong. Nowadays there are lots of people who have many unpaid bills and loans because they can’t control their shopping addict, and that’s not normal anymore.

There are also many people who think that money can really buy happiness, except the Siegel family. They have a massive house, lots of toys, electricity, clothes, own plane and other stuff, and they seem quite happy with all the items. But when they lost almost everything, they didn’t know how to live normally anymore.

So, I think that if you can live without your own plane, 8000 m2 house and all the expensive bags, clothes and games, your life can be much happier with a normal amount of money and items.

Nora Lakeside

We watched a movie about money and rich people. Story told about women, who didn´t know how to spend her money. I think that movie was quite boring. Story told us how to not spent money and how it look when you spent money wrong way. It was fun and boring to watch rich people life.

I think the movie was boring, nut some people can learn many things from it. They can learn that if you rich you not always happy and you can´t always buy anything. I think that you can’t buy happiness, but you can buy things that make you happy. Sometimes only clothes or food can make person happy. But to me happiness is being with family and friends. You can’t buy real friends or family.

If you watch from other point of view they can buy anything and live happy life how they want, but they don’t always have happy family life and many good friends. Usually they say themselves, that they would like more to live normal life than rich life. Some people think, that rich people think only about money and they´re stupid.

So people are different and they make their own decisions. Everyone isn’t rich, but usually they have more quality time with friends and family than rich. Rich have to do work all the time, but normal person can do more things with family and friends. Other people would like to be rich, but I think that I would like to be normal person and have family and friends. I would never like to live in castle. Everyone make their own decision. You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy things that make you happy or make you closer to your happiness.

Elisabeth Jenkins

Money is very important thing if you really want to live. Without money, you can’t eat, drink, or live under the roof. But if you have it too much, and you don’t control it anymore, it can literally destroy your life. It’s great if you have enough money to feed your family and buy stuff, but everyone should keep it under control, like we saw in a documentary called Queen of Versailles.

I think money can buy temporary happiness, because every time I buy something nice, I become happier than usual for a moment. But I don’t think you can buy happiness if you are a billionaire or a millionaire, because happiness isn’t really a thing you can just buy.

If I had 1 000 000 euros, I would worry too much about everything and be paranoid that someone just wants to be my friend because of my money. I would become much happier, if I donated part of the money in charity, than if I just bought everything nice to myself. But still, it doesn’t matter if you are poor or rich, you can still be happy or sad. Money does not define your personality.

So I think that you can’t buy enduring happiness with your money. In the documentary I didn’t see happy faces at the end, so it was just temporary. I think they would have better life with less money.

Ida Cole

Many people think that money CAN just buy you happiness, but I really disagree on that. Money doesn’t just instantly make you happy and you can’t either just buy happiness, except if what you buy gives you the happiness. Some people can become really happy if they buy something like a new car or a new house, but some people are also really happy if they just have food on the table, a pleasant job and a family, in my opinion you shouldn’t need things like a nice car or a nice house and a lot of money to be happy, I think you can be really happy if you just have some good friends, a home, a family and food on the table and I’m really happy to have all of those.

Oskar Gant

This is a very difficult question, is it true or false? What do you want to do in your life? Spend a lot of money or spend memorable time with people you love?

It’s true, that you can buy whatever you want with money. But are you happy then? Because in the end of your life, it doesn’t matter how much money or stuff you have. It’s much more important how much memories you have. In my opinion I think that with money you can buy momentary happiness, but there must be something weightier than materialism. For example if you’re a millionaire but you live alone without friends or family, you just have your money. Are you happy when you die? Because other people might have a big family and lots of friends, but they don’t have as much money as you have. I prefer to be that second one.

Other people have of course different opinions. A rich one can think that she or he has as much as possible money to use, like in a document called Queen of Versailles. Someone might be so dependent on shopping, that it is impossible to start to save money.

But a millionaire can be happy with the money, and a not rich one can be happy without so much money. It doesn’t all depend on money, luckily there is still a lot of free things in the world!

Kathy Spoon

I’m sure that very several people think that with money you can buy happiness. But is it true? When you have money, you can buy all things what you need, want and you only get momentary happiness from your purchases. You can buy expensive brand clothes for example Louis Vuitton’s bags and Chanel’s shoes. The bare truth is: Happiness won’t last your whole life.

People can manage when they don’t have that much money. Many people’s wage isn’t maybe that good as someone else but they can still be happy. You don’t need houses which is worth of millions and 200 000 euro’s car to be a happy person. Of course there are people (usually millionaires) who think that money is all what they need and they don’t even want anything else to their lives. Even very poor people can be happy if they have family and friends.

My opinion is that money won’t make you happy. Your family, friends, job, hobbies and relatives should be enough to make you happy. If you are healthy and free, you should be happy about it. If you’re not happy at the time, figure out some different experience and make your life a little bit different. Do something nice with your friends, decorate your house again or just be with people who you love.

So, you don’t need money to be a happy person. Enjoy your life as it is now and don't worry your money things. Tell your love ones that you love them, it makes your day better. Just remember, money is not that thing what make you happy.

Marie Rivers

Money can make your life better in some ways, but it´s hard to say can you buy true love or happiness with money. The thing in money, what can make you happier is financial freedom. If you don´t have to be always worried about that you have enough money to pay bills and buy food and clothes it´s much easier to be. Other good thing in wealth is that you don’t have to be working so much for money if you don’t want. That gives you time and freedom to do other things like travel or something like that. Of course it´s sometimes nice to buy expensive luxury things too if you have money, but I don’t think it´s the thing in money what makes you happy, if it does.
It´s got to remember that big wealth gives you big responsibility and wealth can stress you.
It can make you materialistic and make you close your eyes for the real things, like friends and family.

Thomas Walt

Some people think that money can buy happiness. Some people think that money can buy momentary happiness and the others think that money can’t buy happiness. When you have some pairs of expensive shoes or some expensive clothes or something else expensive, does it make you happy? Of course when you have a lot of money you can buy everything you want and need, but many people can survive with a little less money. When you get an average wage, you have usually money to buy everything what you need but don’t always have everything what you want. You can be happy without money, but you have to glad of some other things.

I think that money can’t buy happiness. I think that money can maybe buy some momentary happiness for example when you buy some new cloth. But I think that many people are happy some days but then they forget it. My opinion is that happiness comes from the other things for example family and friends. Money can never make you happy for rest of your life.

If you are millionaire you can maybe be happy. You can carry out your dreams, if you need lots of money to carry your dream out. Millionaires life is maybe little easier when they don’t need to worry about the money things. But if is thought that thing from another opinion the poor people can live easy and with no worries. Some people have maybe different dream that the carry it out don’t need any money. Everyone can live happiness with no money.

This thing compressed is that everybody in this world can live happiness without money. But if you have money, you can also be happy. You have to find happiness somewhere different thing. Love your live and don’t worry your money things.

Paulina Rock

Very many people think that with money you can buy happiness. But is it true? With money you can get everything what you want. Even if you had ten pairs of Prada and Gucci shoes is it enough to make you really happy? Some people have addiction to buy everything what they see and they think that all that material would make them happy. But that is just part time happiness. After a while they go and buy another pair of shoes because the first ones didn’t make them happy enough. And this goes on and on.

In my opinion money isn’t the thing that should give you the biggest happiness. It should be your friends, relatives, family and other important things. When you die it isn’t important how many pairs of shoes you own. The most important thing is the time you’ve spent with your love ones. All the precious memories and experiences are the ones that remind people of you. With money you can’t buy friends or good memories you have to be yourself to have them.

If you are a millionaire you can think that money can buy happiness. But if you get an average wage you know that you can’t have everything what you want but you still can deal with the money you have. You don’t have to be a millionaire to be happy. Still a millionaire can be happy about other things too even if they have a lot of money.

With money you can’t buy true happiness. But if you have it, enjoy it but remember to cherish it. Nothing lasts forever so remember to concentrate on things that are important to you.

Kate Ronney

In a documentary called Queen Of Versailles we saw a family, which was a very very rich family. They had a lot of stuff in their home, they bought new stuff everyday, because they were use to it. Almost everytime when they were shopping, they bought new toys for kids. Every time. The kids were spoiled and they had a nanny. The nanny spent time with the kids more than their mom did. Money brought some kind of happiness for this family. They had very big dreams and one of them was the biggest house in the America. They started to build the house and at the same time their dreams was growing and they were so proud of the biggest house in the America.

The rooms were huge, Jacqueline Siegel has bigger room for only her shoes that many other Americans’s have their whole house. David Siegel has many businesses and they sold a lot of resorts and made money from that. But when the stock market crashed, they very really in trouble. David had borrowed money. And now we are talking about a large amount of money, millions. They didn’t get their dream house ready, because they didn’t have enough money for that. The bank told them to sell the house, but there wasn’t anyone who wanted to buy it. David was very depressed because he didn’t know should he sell a piece of his business, because the bankruptcy was very near. They sold one of their businesses.

I think that money can make you happy for a little while, because you can buy some awesome, lovely new things, like what ever you want. But usually it gets out of hand if you have too much money. You can’t think about poor people, maybe you don’t care about them anymore. If you lose your money, how can you live without it, if you’re so hooked on it and buying things?

Some people don’t want so much money, they don’t need it. The most important thing is that they get their food on the table and they can buy the bills. It’s enough for them and they are happy. They think that it’s more important to have good relationships with their friends and family. People are happiest when they have someone to love to and someone who loves them.

Some people think that they can have everything, if they have just enough money. I don’t think they’re thinking right, ‘cause this kind of people live for only themselves, not for everyone else’s good.

So the most important thing is that you can live, you are not starve to death, you have clothes and you can sometimes buy something you like, you have people around you and you are a real, caring person. That will make you happy, not money.

Mary Rabine

We watched a documentary about the life of David A. Siegel and his wife, and I was asked to do an essay based on that documentary of the subject “can money buy happiness? “.

David met his wife at a model competition. They have 30 years of age difference and David is filthy rich. David said that he also helped George W. Bush to become a president. Although there is no evidence to prove this “fact” legit because he refused to talk about it; it may have not been fully legal.

David’s parents were well known in Las Vegas Casino. Every time they went there they were offered front seat tickets to Elvis Presley show etc. David was the owner of WestGate hotel and the biggest living house in Unites States. The living house territory was huge enough to fit the whole Disneyland center in there. It was also bigger than the White House!

On the year 2008 there was a huge economic crisis in the US. Enormous amount of people lost their job and company leaders were giving their best to save their company from becoming bankrupt. Even David had to cut his budget and start saving money, although his wife was still shopping and wasting a lot of money on stuff they didn’t actually even need. David eventually had to fire 6000 workers and lose WestGate due to unpaid taxes. He tried to find money to save it but it was hopeless.

I personally think that money can buy temporary happiness which won’t last for long. I think David would have managed way better if he would have just been less greedy and if he would have used money in a smarter way instead of just throwing it in the air. I bet everyone that heard of him or saw him were thinking that his some kind of a important person but actually he’s just a silly guy with a lot of money and who ended up with a bunch of children and no money.

Money can and will buy you happiness, but with it will come great greed and addiction to more money.

Eltz Viper