Money Can't Buy Happiness

by Dr Leong Tien Fock

This idea is not new. For years, no, decades, we have heard it said. But recently, of all people, some economists are also saying it. And they have evidence to back them.

Both the New Straits Times and The Star carried a short article on a recently published study entitled “Explaining Happiness”. Richard Easterlin concludes that more money does not mean more happiness. His analysis is based on data from the United States General Social Survey. From 1972 to 2000, researchers annually asked the same 1,500 people questions such as, "Taken all together, how would you say things are these days? Would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy or not too happy?"

“Many people are under the illusion that the more money we make, the happier we’ll be”, says Easterlin. “So we put all our resources into making money at the expense of our family and our health.” Ironically, according to him, happiness typically came from spending quality time with loved ones and from good health. In the very pursuit of happiness, many people lose out on the very things that bring happiness!

Two main reasons have been given why more money does not translate into more happiness. The first is, as Easterlin puts it: “The problem is we don't realize that our material wants increase with the amount of money we make.” The Bible has said the same thing in a more graphic way: “When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the profit to their owners except to look on?” (Eccl 5:11). We want money for what money can buy. Since material wants are limitless, often this means that when there is more money there is only more spending, without satisfying the wants.

This does not mean that money has absolutely nothing to do with happiness. In a study comparing “happiness” across countries, Ronald Inglehart and H-D Klingemann found that for poor countries, the level of income does contribute to the level of “happiness”. But “once a country has over US$15,000 per head, its level of happiness appears to be independent of its income per head”. This means that money brings “happiness” only up to a certain level. This makes sense as all human beings have basic (material) needs that must be met. In other words, once a person’s basic needs are satisfied, more money may not bring more “happiness”. This explains why Christ, when He commanded His disciples to seek first God’s kingdom, promised them that their basic needs would be met (Matt 6:33).

The second reason why more money does not bring more happiness is the problem of rivalry. In a memorial lecture given earlier this year at the London School of Economics, Richard Layard cited a revealing study conducted in Harvard University. The public health graduate students were asked which scenario they preferred: A) You get $50,000 a year and others get half that; or, B) You get $100,000 a year and others get more than double that. The majority chose the first scenario.

Since most people will likely find a “neighbour” (which includes friends and acquaintances) making more money than them, their increase in income brings no happiness. This in fact often leads to a syndrome we have known as “keeping up with the Joneses”, and to which Layard would add, “or if possible, outdoing them”.

This discovery is nothing new. Solomon has already said in the Bible: “I have seen that every toil and every achievement spring from one’s envy of his neighbour. This is vanity and a striving after wind” (Eccl 4:4). Throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon’s advice is that we should enjoy what we have and not envy what we do not have. He says that what the eyes sees (what we have) is better than what the soul desires (what we do not have); for the soul is a bottomless pit in terms of wants (Eccl 6:7-9).

Thus Ecclesiastes addresses the two main reasons why people are not happier though they are making more money. And because they spent their time pursuing money and thus losing out on what brings happiness, they are not only not happier, they are not happy.

Space does not allow an adequate exposition of Ecclesiastes. Suffice it to say that the book recreates the sense of vanity in our hearts and minds. It forces us to face the reality that “naked we come, naked we go” so as to make us see that we should enjoy what we have, even wealth, and be happy (Eccl 5:15-20). Thus Ecclesiastes even teaches money can bring happiness beyond basic needs! But Solomon convincingly argues that all this can happen only if and when we truly fear God and keep His commandments (Eccl 11:7-10; 12:1,13). And this means that we love God and not Money and our money is at His disposal.

Increasingly, Christians tend to trust in the social sciences more than in the Bible. But whatever crucial truth social science finally discovers, it is most likely already revealed in the Bible.

In fact the Bible offers solutions that social science cannot. For instance, social science may discover that happiness comes “from spending quality time with loved ones and from good health”. But it will not likely discover that our most important loved one is our Heavenly Father and that serving Him brings happiness that is not of this world.

Further, as is already recognized in medical science, “a joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones” (Prov 17:22). Thus good health is dependent on emotional and spiritual wholeness. Can social science ever match the Bible in teaching us how to experience emotional and spiritual well-being, and thus good health?

In fact, the latest edition of Dr. S.I. McMillen’s classic book None Of These Diseases has this caption on the back cover: “After thousands of years, medical science rediscovers a startling prescription for full and healthy living: the Bible!”

Dr Leong Tien Fock is Research coordinator of Malaysia Campus Crusade for Christ.