do you believe in 'money does not buy you happiness' ~ rich are not happy !!

Read that in his thought provoking book   ‘The Geometry of Wealth’ , author Brian Portnoy observes: “Does money buy happiness? The answer to that question can be summarised as Yes, Not really, It depends."

Intuitively none of us like ambiguous answers like this, but here, it successfully illustrates the complexity inherent in the question. After all, what is happiness? Money can definitely alleviate poverty. It can put a roof over your head, food on the table, warmth, clothing and medical support. Once our basic needs are meet, money’s impact on our happiness has progressively less impact. If you’re a CEO on $1 million, a 5 per cent pay rise isn’t going to move the happiness dial for you enormously.   The recurring theme of movies seem to be that : ‘rich men are not happy ! ~ poor man are !!;  rich men cannot sleep well in luxury beds; poor man, after a hard day’s work can sleep on floor mat !!  ~  tinseldom clichés ~ and we hear from them people who make crores, the listeners are those daily wage earners and commoners who struggle to make their ends meet and yet, we believe in ‘rich ain’t happy’. 

Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge – WI openers

Remember him play at Chepauk in 1983 test – a sportstar picture revealed him to be wearing a thick gold chain on which was written ‘live-love-laugh’. Those days, we heard that Caribbeans are care-free, luxury chasers who live their lives happily.  People doubted that big man who opened with Gordon Greenidge – was he a dour defencer ~ nay, he could smack couple of huge sixers pushing back Greenidge and even Viv Richards.  Desmond Haynes, the man, burst on to the scene was called up from relative obscurity for a One-Day International against Australia. The impact was immediate. He set the Antigua Recreation Ground on fire, with a blazing 148 against Australia and this showed that the kid nicknamed "Joe Louis" -- because of his love for the famous boxing champion -- was ready for the world.

From there he went from strength to strength and made a sterling contribution to the history of West Indies cricket, before leaving the arena in 1994. After starting as an aggressive right-hander, he mellowed and changed his style to become a solid opener who could be relied on to bat for very long periods.  In 116 tests he made 7487 runs with 18 hundreds & 8648 more ODI runs in 238 matches with 17 hundreds.

Away from  Cricket, a  study conducted by two Emory University economics professors claimed to be of  more evidence, documented by formal research, that money can’t buy happiness, or to be more precise, that spending a lot of money on a lavish wedding doesn’t make a couple’s future prospects for happiness any more likely than spending less.  What they found in their study of over 3000 individuals was that those couples that opted for the higher-cost weddings were 1.6 times more likely to divorce then those who paid under $10,000 for their weddings. In offering an explanation for so many couples’ willingness to spend so much on weddings, Professor Francis stated, “The wedding industry has long associated lavish weddings with longer-lasting marriages. Industry advertising has fueled norms that create the impression that spending large amounts on the wedding is a signal of commitment or is necessary for a marriage to be successful.”

Somebody else states a simple  look at the lives of the successful and the rich people shows that there  are dozens of very successful, seemingly happy, and rich people  who  committed suicide!  They were so unhappy that they thought suicide would be the best way out.  But MailOnline has a different story on a lottery winner Melissa Ede who  declared 'I love life now' after continuing her spending spree by splashing £40,000 on her teeth.

According to the report, Ms Ede, who won £4million on a scratchcard, will have 23 new pearly whites fitted next month in a procedure lasting 10 hours.  It follows her purchase of a £33,000 BMW, a £500,000 five-bedroom home and another £170,000 detached property for her mother. But she insists she has not let the wealth go to her head - noting that she still shops in Primark and has given £10,000 to charity.  She told the Daily Mirror: 'All those people who say money doesn't buy you happiness are talking a load of rubbish.' Her dental operation will involve having 15 teeth and 8 roots removed so new gnashers can be inserted.   It’s quite a change for the former cab driver, who spent last Christmas Day driving around Hull from 8am until 4am on Boxing Day.

She has wisely invested much of her fortune, and now withdraws an allowance of £6,500 a month, rather than the £650 she had a year ago.  Ms Ede, who is transgender, has also had various fillers and botox, and plans to finish off with a nose job before wedding her fiancée, Rachel Nason.  She told Ms Nason that 2017 was going to be the year she became a millionaire and she succeeded on December 30 - just a day before the self-imposed deadline.  It happened after she went into a garage in Hull with £20 to buy fuel for her cab. After spending £8.91 on diesel she could not decide whether to buy cigarettes or the £10 National Lottery Blue Scratchcard. 'I don't know why but this £10 scratchcard actually jumped at me,' she told Closer Magazine. I looked at it and I thought, 'cigs or scratchcard, what do I do?'. Something was telling me to buy that scratchcard.'

Describing her actions after realising she had won, she said: 'I got back out of my car, I ran into the garage, I just went, 'Oh my God you will not believe this, you've just handed me £4 million'.'  Despite scooping the jackpot, Ms Ede still spends £30 every week on scratchcards, and claims to have won back £5,000 this year.

So .. .. .. what is your take !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

17^th Dec 2018.