Does Money Equal Happiness?

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Does Money Equal Happiness?
Many people think money is the key to happiness. Happiness is the state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy, which means happiness is an emotion. An emotion is what you feel. Emotions can be short lived or long term. Some emotions, like fear, can come and go. Long lasting fear usually is undesirable. Happiness, on the other hand, is an emotion that most people would like to experience over the long term. People often seek short-term ways to make them feel happy. But, long-term happiness is a bit more challenging to create. Money certainly can buy things that can make a person happy...for a while. In today’s world, IPhones, fancy cars, and nice clothes seem to have become a necessity in life. The problem is, soon there is a newer phone or a fancier car. People can get stuck in a never-ending cycle of trying to buy short-term happiness. Over a lifespan, purchases meant to provide short-term happiness can result in insufficient money for the necessities of life ultimately resulting in unhappiness. Money may actually not be necessary in the first place.
There are numerous examples where people who have a lot less are happier. If you travel outside of the typical American city you can find that buying happiness with money is not always the case. I got to meet someone who was happy with having less. When my family and me went on a cruise, we had a waiter who was working on his son’s birthday. Not many Americans would choose to work serving food and miss a child's birthday. The waiter said that he didn’t have enough money to buy his son a present and that he was happy to be working that day. Buying a present for his son didn’t matter to him. He was just happy for it being his son’s birthday. He was even more satisfied that he was able to have a job which allowed him to make money which
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