Money: Is it the most important thing in life? [ENDS 18/03/2012]

[Grig]

Money: Is it the most important thing in life?
Ends: 18/03/2012

I won't go in too much detail here, but money really encompasses a lot to live a happy life. With money we can purchase what we want and is a symbol of modern society. Money can purchase so much; health-wise for example it can get you great medical care and what not.

However, are we placing too much emphasis on money, for it's just paper at the end of the day. Isolated tribal communities for example have been found to be fully self-reliant and extremely happy, yet have no money.

So as we spend our lives for this money, is it most important thing in life or not? Debate away!

[auffant1]

Well I wouldn't say money is the most important thing, but it sure is important. Without it, how would we buy stuff. I find that if we did not have money, then we could not live in a functioning society.

My answer: No, money is not the most important thing.

[Oleh]

I say it is, without money one cannot afford to live independently, if you can't live independently then what's the point?

The tribes without any money live in such a way due to the fact they don't have to pay for anything, they don't utilize anything other than their own energy.

[RealClifford]

I suppose I'll open with my answer and elaborate it more after. I do not believe that money is the most important thing in life.

People say "Money can't buy you happiness". I disagree, money can buy you happiness but it cannot buy you joy. Joy is a long term positive outlook on life no matter the circumstance, happiness is the state of satisfaction, but in the world we live in we aren't always satisfied with what happens, what we are given, how people act, etc etc. But joy allows a person to be happy no matter how people act or what goes on in life.

In my opinion being joyful is the most important thing in life and since money doesn't buy joy, but merely a false sense of happiness I don't believe money is the most important. Money can be seen like a drug. It allows you to feel happy and have that 'high' for a short while, but eventually you need more to get that again and it begins to get worse and worse.

Yes, money can buy good health care, and allow you to get a great education and so on, but that is because society views money as the most important, but personally I disagree.

So, to conclude. Socially money can be viewed as most important as it is the only avenue available to get the things we need but joy will allow you to be happy despite not being able to get that.
One last addition. Third world countries and people. They have VERY little money, yet whenever i have seen someone who has gone over there and they bring back video's these people seem to be the most happy and joyful people, yet they have very little if not no money?

Socially, in our society it has been cultivated money can buy all, but fact is money is not the be all and end all in life. Just in our society.
So, no, money is not the most important thing in life.

[beth]

i want to say no but i know my life would be so much better if i had infinite amounts of money in my life.

money could solve so many of my problems and i genuinely think it is the most important thing that dominates this world now. people do live without money (tribes etc) but that is because they aren't aware (that sounds so ignorant but i don't mean it to be) of the power of money. ignorance is bliss you could say, and i'm sure their societies without money are fantastic. but i don't live in one of those societies, i spend money every single day. it's usually on my mind in some form or another, i wish it wasn't this way, but it is.

[-:Undertaker:-]

The total sum of what you own (a form of money in itself) is important in life, there's no doubt about that.

But fiat currencies? hardly the most important things in life.

[ihatehash]

As a finance student there is only one way for me to answer this question.
No, money is not the most important thing in life I believe education is. Money is a key component of how we live and within what means we live. The reason why I say education is more important than money can be explained through understand the main objective of finance. To optimise satisfaction with limited or scare resources. This means having a knowledge of where and how to spend your money.

I bring you to an example of a family I knew. They were moderately wealthy and were living within their means but they decided to invest in a company that owned a number of apartment buildings. Had this family done their research they would have understood there were many problems and mistakes in the accounting information of this business and a financial advisor would have warned them against investing in this company. This family lost a lot of their wealth and had to move out of the city into a much smaller house and are now living on a very small income.

Money did not bring joy to this family but instead pain and suffering, had they been more educated into how to use their money, where and when to invest, and where not to invest they would probably have a lot more money than they had started with. You can once again argue that money creates education but then in saying that you could also say sex creates life which creates money and education does that therefore mean sex is the most important thing in life? Anyway I won't go there but remember this had humans not been educated through life experiences would money be there in the first place? and where would we spend our money?

So to conclude I strongly believe that while money is a large component of our daily life, it is not the most important part of our lives.

[iMacaroni]

I would say No, However money buys you comfort but is comfort happiness ?.I have to say that Money is the most stressful thing in life and I know if we don't have money in our lives, we can't cope with it.If you want to have a stable life, don't tend to over use Money for comfort or such.Use it wisely.

I'll tell you a story about this women. This Woman is a single parent with 2 Kids and 2 Elderly, She worked hard when after she divorced with her husband and her life was very stable, She had no Financial problems and she knew she had to work hard because she's alone. When one day when she found out about Credit Cards. She applied for it and boastfully using until she was bankrupt because she cannot afford to pay her bill. She was struggling to pay for her home bills and her Children's school fees.

Like I said before, If you want to have a stable life, spent money wisely and SAY NO TO CREDIT CARD (<.<'')

[GoldenMerc]

Money makes the world go around, without money the world would just have problems

[GirlNextDoor15]

Imo, the most important thing in life is bound to be subjective. Like what [@]@imacaroni[/@] has said, money is probably not the most important thing until the woman got into huge debts which was obviously her fault for being so greedy and wanting more. It is just like a part of growing up which you have to carry all those silly responsibilities and manage them well but by the time you're in your 30s or 40s, you'll probably think money is not as important as love etc. It changes just like how your life changes. Definitely depends on how you want to live with money and not letting it to control you. So, my answer is no.

Money makes the world go around, without money the world would just have problems

And how is that? Money is not water or air. They are just papers used to fulfill your requirements. And I'm pretty sure parents will still tell their kids to grow up and become useful people instead of 'YOU MUST BRING US LOTS OF MONEY OR YOU DIE'.