This is the question that came to my mind after reading a case study for one of our classes in Analysis of Business Problem course in Lagos Business School. Does money equal happiness? What are the relationships between happiness and money?
The material was based on a young CEO Dan Price, 30 who after coming across a study which stated that people who earn less that $75,000 (US dollars) per annum lived in some form of financial lack, and were more hit with life’s challenges such as raising a family, divorce, emotional challenges etc. Same fact was also mentioned in an old American series, titled “Orange is the New Black”. That those who earn less than $75,000 are living in financial lack and those earning more than that amount are no happier that those earning just $75,000.
In the case of Dan Price the founder of Gravity Payment, a private credit card processing and financial services company. Which was founded in 2004 by two brothers Dan and Lucas Price and by 2015, the company has grown significantly controlling major market shares in the industry.
Dan acting on the information from the research decided to pay everyone in his company a minimum wage of $70,000, thereby cutting his salary from about a million dollars to just $70,000 per annum and also cutting into some of the company’s profit. Although with mixed reaction from different parties, which is not mainly our topic for today.
Also, from a recent interview between legendary American heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson and RnB singer Ne-Yo, the topic of correlation between happiness and money was also brought up.
Mike Tyson being unarguably the best person to ask, having lost over four hundred million dollars ($400, 000,000) and another one hundred million dollars (100,000,000) to his promoter was asked and he mentioned his personal view about money not being entirely the reason for happiness as he has had moment when he was much happier even with way lesser net worth and material things.
Stating that, people with modest living, living the most cheerful and happy lives, and even beggars that are way happier that supposed very wealthy and influential people. And that a lot of very rich people still live in depression and some even committing suicide. So, in his words… happiness doesn’t really have so much to do with having money as perceived.
That brings us to the end of this write-up. So, let me know what you think.
Does having more money make one happier? Or is there a certain amount that completely takes care of every person’s monetary need as stated in the cases of $75,000 above??
Thank You!…
African Cultures