Do material things make you happy?

[renkxedik]

It use too until suddenly I lost everything ... Now they don't matter at all ... The only thing they're used for is comfort ... I remember when I useto go crazy over having jewelery, fly clothes, new kicks and a fitted ... When now all that matters it that I got clean clothes that match .. I'm good
.
.
.
More than anything else I'd say choices make me happy ... Meaning I don't have to go to a certain place that has $@@%#% service or with employees thatfollow me around because that's all I could afford ..... Or even live around or work with people that I can't stand due to limited choices/options ....So that's what I chase these days properity and the increased choices that come with it

 

[socluis90]

Originally Posted by The Yes Guy

Originally Posted by red mpls

Originally Posted by The Yes Guy

Originally Posted by GTEK

Originally Posted by The Yes Guy

Anyone that answers no is kidding themselves. Pretty much all of our life is centered around obtaining more material things.

I don't think just material things can make you happy, but if you don't have them you probably won't be happy.

Quoted for lie.

Lie? Go give away all your things then and see how happy you are. You're on a forum about shoes and have shoes in your avatar. You clearly care about material things. Material things doesn't mean super expensive TVs or cars, it means things in general. Hell, money is material. I don't like to judge people, but based on this and other posts you have tried to argue with me in, you are clearly fairly naive.

The guy who posted about how his aunt has a lame car and lame TV tried to say that she is happy without having nice things, but she still has things. She was able to upgrade her TV, so she has money, and she has two car, however lame by NT standards they may be. Liking art is a material thing. If someone is making money, they have the ability to get things. Someone without money won't have things, and most likely won't be happy. Let's erase "material things" from the argument and just use "money" instead. You can't be happy with only money, but without money it's very hard to be happy. Someone who doesn't own lots of material things but still makes "good money" is much different from someone without money and no material things.

Mez One, A steak is a material thing.

I know people who have literally given all of their possessions away and they are some of the happiest people I know.

My parents were missionaries for three years in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where they lived in the slums without heat, electricity, hot water, etc. organizing people around education and labor rights. I was actually born there in the middle of their stay and spent the first year and a half of my life there. They always tell me how those were some of the happiest times of their lives and how the people that they worked with were some of the happiest and most amazing people that they ever met and called their friends despite sometimes not having even their most basic needs met (adequate food, clothing, and shelter).

One of my professors and mentors worked for a year in India with Mother Theresa. She lived with her, ate with her, worked with her, and slept in the bed next to hers. All she took to India was a few sets of clothes and a comfortable pair of shoes. She lived the existence of the people she worked with, some of the most destitute on this planet... and she loved it. She also said she couldn't believe how happy people were in India who didn't even have clean water to drink.

How can you explain these things if money and material wealth are needed for people to be happy? These people often lived without basic human necessities yet found joy and beauty in their lives everyday...

People who don't know that there can be more will be more happy with nothing than people who live in a consumer culture like ours. Someone who is raised with nothing naturally won't be unhappy if they don't own an LCD TV. Someone in America or another affluent country who sees advertisements for all then newest toys will want those things. And for your parents and the missionaries, there are exceptions to every rule. Most people would not be happy giving away all their possessions, and I don't see how you can argue that.

You're exaggerating. Give away everything? Who the hell would do that in ANY country? Of course no one will because that's what you work for in life tostay alive. There are some basic stuff you need : house, food, clothing, and family IMO. Of course someone with money is going to buy a nicer TV set thansomeone who doesn't but just because you can afford a 72 inch TV do you buy it? It's all about moderating yourself.

I used to be like you but I slowly changed seeing how my poorer friends in this country live and how people in other countries live. I used to buy all theJordan releases and had my room hooked up with turntables, big HDTV, Surround sound, PS3, etc... I would go to Best Buy and just impulse shop when I wasbored.

Now I realized you can be happy with so little and instead of always trying to get the next best thing because it's like plugging in a whole that nevergets filled.I envy the happiness the people I have visited in Mexico and Guatemala because even though they have so little, they're a lot happier than 90%of people in this country with myself included.

 

[a55a5in11]

have u ever seen a person frowning on a sea-doo?

money doesnt buy you hapiness? oh really, do u live in america?

 

[the yes guy]

Originally Posted by socluis90

People who don't know that there can be more will be more happy with nothing than people who live in a consumer culture like ours. Someone who is raised with nothing naturally won't be unhappy if they don't own an LCD TV. Someone in America or another affluent country who sees advertisements for all then newest toys will want those things. And for your parents and the missionaries, there are exceptions to every rule. Most people would not be happy giving away all their possessions, and I don't see how you can argue that.

You're exaggerating. Give away everything? Who the hell would do that in ANY country? Of course no one will because that's what you work for in life to stay alive. There are some basic stuff you need : house, food, clothing, and family IMO. Of course someone with money is going to buy a nicer TV set than someone who doesn't but just because you can afford a 72 inch TV do you buy it? It's all about moderating yourself.

I used to be like you but I slowly changed seeing how my poorer friends in this country live and how people in other countries live. I used to buy all the Jordan releases and had my room hooked up with turntables, big HDTV, Surround sound, PS3, etc... I would go to Best Buy and just impulse shop when I was bored.

Now I realized you can be happy with so little and instead of always trying to get the next best thing because it's like plugging in a whole that never gets filled.I envy the happiness the people I have visited in Mexico and Guatemala because even though they have so little, they're a lot happier than 90% of people in this country with myself included.


I think you missed the point of what I was saying, as evidenced by again referencing impoverished people in third world (sorry, Mexico) countries.It's not what you have that makes you happy, its what you think you should have and do or don't.

You may not buy things all the time now, but you still have the capacity to. You don't think you need those things anymore, but you could have them

 

[fenixconnexion.]

yup. i dont care what anyone says

 

[socluis90]

Originally Posted by The Yes Guy

Originally Posted by socluis90

People who don't know that there can be more will be more happy with nothing than people who live in a consumer culture like ours. Someone who is raised with nothing naturally won't be unhappy if they don't own an LCD TV. Someone in America or another affluent country who sees advertisements for all then newest toys will want those things. And for your parents and the missionaries, there are exceptions to every rule. Most people would not be happy giving away all their possessions, and I don't see how you can argue that.

You're exaggerating. Give away everything? Who the hell would do that in ANY country? Of course no one will because that's what you work for in life to stay alive. There are some basic stuff you need : house, food, clothing, and family IMO. Of course someone with money is going to buy a nicer TV set than someone who doesn't but just because you can afford a 72 inch TV do you buy it? It's all about moderating yourself.

I used to be like you but I slowly changed seeing how my poorer friends in this country live and how people in other countries live. I used to buy all the Jordan releases and had my room hooked up with turntables, big HDTV, Surround sound, PS3, etc... I would go to Best Buy and just impulse shop when I was bored.

Now I realized you can be happy with so little and instead of always trying to get the next best thing because it's like plugging in a whole that never gets filled.I envy the happiness the people I have visited in Mexico and Guatemala because even though they have so little, they're a lot happier than 90% of people in this country with myself included.

I think you missed the point of what I was saying, as evidenced by again referencing impoverished people in third world (sorry, Mexico) countries. It's not what you have that makes you happy, its what you think you should have and do or don't.

You may not buy things all the time now, but you still have the capacity to. You don't think you need those things anymore, but you could have them


The thing is my family over there have money so technically they could buy the nice stuff. They just don't. Now if your point is that here inAmerica we're brainwashed to try and have nice things then yeah.

 

[the yes guy]

That is more or less my point. My point is also that the ability to buy material things is much more important than the things themselves.

 

[youngcfromthad]

nah they don't.

 

[-Red-]

Originally Posted by The Yes Guy

Originally Posted by red mpls

Originally Posted by The Yes Guy

Originally Posted by GTEK

Originally Posted by The Yes Guy

Anyone that answers no is kidding themselves. Pretty much all of our life is centered around obtaining more material things.

I don't think just material things can make you happy, but if you don't have them you probably won't be happy.

Quoted for lie.

Lie? Go give away all your things then and see how happy you are. You're on a forum about shoes and have shoes in your avatar. You clearly care about material things. Material things doesn't mean super expensive TVs or cars, it means things in general. Hell, money is material. I don't like to judge people, but based on this and other posts you have tried to argue with me in, you are clearly fairly naive.

The guy who posted about how his aunt has a lame car and lame TV tried to say that she is happy without having nice things, but she still has things. She was able to upgrade her TV, so she has money, and she has two car, however lame by NT standards they may be. Liking art is a material thing. If someone is making money, they have the ability to get things. Someone without money won't have things, and most likely won't be happy. Let's erase "material things" from the argument and just use "money" instead. You can't be happy with only money, but without money it's very hard to be happy. Someone who doesn't own lots of material things but still makes "good money" is much different from someone without money and no material things.

Mez One, A steak is a material thing.

I know people who have literally given all of their possessions away and they are some of the happiest people I know.

My parents were missionaries for three years in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where they lived in the slums without heat, electricity, hot water, etc. organizing people around education and labor rights. I was actually born there in the middle of their stay and spent the first year and a half of my life there. They always tell me how those were some of the happiest times of their lives and how the people that they worked with were some of the happiest and most amazing people that they ever met and called their friends despite sometimes not having even their most basic needs met (adequate food, clothing, and shelter).

One of my professors and mentors worked for a year in India with Mother Theresa. She lived with her, ate with her, worked with her, and slept in the bed next to hers. All she took to India was a few sets of clothes and a comfortable pair of shoes. She lived the existence of the people she worked with, some of the most destitute on this planet... and she loved it. She also said she couldn't believe how happy people were in India who didn't even have clean water to drink.

How can you explain these things if money and material wealth are needed for people to be happy? These people often lived without basic human necessities yet found joy and beauty in their lives everyday...

People who don't know that there can be more will be more happy with nothing than people who live in a consumer culture like ours. Someone who is raised with nothing naturally won't be unhappy if they don't own an LCD TV. Someone in America or another affluent country who sees advertisements for all then newest toys will want those things. And for your parents and the missionaries, there are exceptions to every rule. Most people would not be happy giving away all their possessions, and I don't see how you can argue that.

Brazil has the highest economic disparity between its rich and poor citizens of any country in the world; India has the caste system in whichpeople are essentially ascribed a class upon birth and are aggressively taught class difference and their "place" in society. So to say that thepoor people in these countries are not well aware of their poverty both in regard to the more affluent in their own country and the average lifestyle in theU.S. is highly inaccurate. Yet they remain happy.

I do agree 100 percent with your argument that U.S. culture attempts to convince us that achieving monetary and material excess is the only path to happinessand that plenty of people blindly buy into this non-sense (as the majority of responses to this post illustrate). However, this is not true of every cultureand thus, we cannot conclude with any sort of certainty that material wealth indeed makes people (in general) happy if this phenomenon only applies to certaincultures.

I would agree that my parents and mentor are exceptional in that they gave their possessions and lifestyle up willingly; however, I do not think that they areunique in that they remained happy despite material poverty. There are numerous studies that show that people's level of happiness is largely constantthroughout their lives; while tragedies temporarily lower levels of happiness and positive events temporarily increase happiness, in less than two years (atthe longest), people will almost always be just as happy (or unhappy) as they were before...

 

[chickfileezy]

Kinda reminds me of The Sims when you use the money cheat. Once you've bought everything there's nothing to look forward to.

 

[sure lock 510]

Originally Posted by chickfileezy

Kinda reminds me of The Sims when you use the money cheat. Once you've bought everything there's nothing to look forward to.

word

 

[the yes guy]

Originally Posted by red mpls

Originally Posted by The Yes Guy

Originally Posted by red mpls

Originally Posted by The Yes Guy

Originally Posted by GTEK

Originally Posted by The Yes Guy

Anyone that answers no is kidding themselves. Pretty much all of our life is centered around obtaining more material things.

I don't think just material things can make you happy, but if you don't have them you probably won't be happy.

Quoted for lie.

Lie? Go give away all your things then and see how happy you are. You're on a forum about shoes and have shoes in your avatar. You clearly care about material things. Material things doesn't mean super expensive TVs or cars, it means things in general. Hell, money is material. I don't like to judge people, but based on this and other posts you have tried to argue with me in, you are clearly fairly naive.

The guy who posted about how his aunt has a lame car and lame TV tried to say that she is happy without having nice things, but she still has things. She was able to upgrade her TV, so she has money, and she has two car, however lame by NT standards they may be. Liking art is a material thing. If someone is making money, they have the ability to get things. Someone without money won't have things, and most likely won't be happy. Let's erase "material things" from the argument and just use "money" instead. You can't be happy with only money, but without money it's very hard to be happy. Someone who doesn't own lots of material things but still makes "good money" is much different from someone without money and no material things.

Mez One, A steak is a material thing.

I know people who have literally given all of their possessions away and they are some of the happiest people I know.

My parents were missionaries for three years in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where they lived in the slums without heat, electricity, hot water, etc. organizing people around education and labor rights. I was actually born there in the middle of their stay and spent the first year and a half of my life there. They always tell me how those were some of the happiest times of their lives and how the people that they worked with were some of the happiest and most amazing people that they ever met and called their friends despite sometimes not having even their most basic needs met (adequate food, clothing, and shelter).

One of my professors and mentors worked for a year in India with Mother Theresa. She lived with her, ate with her, worked with her, and slept in the bed next to hers. All she took to India was a few sets of clothes and a comfortable pair of shoes. She lived the existence of the people she worked with, some of the most destitute on this planet... and she loved it. She also said she couldn't believe how happy people were in India who didn't even have clean water to drink.

How can you explain these things if money and material wealth are needed for people to be happy? These people often lived without basic human necessities yet found joy and beauty in their lives everyday...

People who don't know that there can be more will be more happy with nothing than people who live in a consumer culture like ours. Someone who is raised with nothing naturally won't be unhappy if they don't own an LCD TV. Someone in America or another affluent country who sees advertisements for all then newest toys will want those things. And for your parents and the missionaries, there are exceptions to every rule. Most people would not be happy giving away all their possessions, and I don't see how you can argue that.

Brazil has the highest economic disparity between its rich and poor citizens of any country in the world; India has the caste system in which people are essentially ascribed a class upon birth and are aggressively taught class difference and their "place" in society. So to say that the poor people in these countries are not well aware of their poverty both in regard to the more affluent in their own country and the average lifestyle in the U.S. is highly inaccurate. Yet they remain happy.

I do agree 100 percent with your argument that U.S. culture attempts to convince us that achieving monetary and material excess is the only path to happiness and that plenty of people blindly buy into this non-sense (as the majority of responses to this post illustrate). However, this is not true of every culture and thus, we cannot conclude with any sort of certainty that material wealth indeed makes people (in general) happy if this phenomenon only applies to certain cultures.

I would agree that my parents and mentor are exceptional in that they gave their possessions and lifestyle up willingly; however, I do not think that they are unique in that they remained happy despite material poverty. There are numerous studies that show that people's level of happiness is largely constant throughout their lives; while tragedies temporarily lower levels of happiness and positive events temporarily increase happiness, in less than two years (at the longest), people will almost always be just as happy (or unhappy) as they were before...

If you had been following my other posts not addressed to you, you would see that I pointed out I was only referring to America and other cultures with broadaffluence. I also don't think you can make the blanket statement that people in India "remain happy", but neither I nor you can possibly knowexactly how happy the impoverished lower castes are. I also tend to think that having a system with no chance for improvement, such as in India, createsdrastically different expectations for quality of life than in America. Here, everyone feels like they can achieve some sort of wealth, and buy all the highpriced electronics in their local Wal Mart. Someone who never has any hope to advance won't be disappointed and unhappy when they are unable to. It soundsterrible, but I think it's true.

 

[bobby light]

Originally Posted by cartune

Yes.

 

[phat703]

Yes, Shoes and clothes "make" me happy

..but only to acertain extent...I'd rather have sex more than material things any day

 

[killmatic07]

A Little Bit, Never as much as I think they will.

 

[goldmember]

Originally Posted by Bobby Light

Originally Posted by cartune

Yes.

 

[fade on you]

Sure as hell do.

 

[jumpman247]

I wish my niketalk sn was magic mike, because my names not mike but i'm magical.

 

[finnns2003]

Originally Posted by jumpman247

I wish my niketalk sn was magic mike, because my names not mike but i'm magical.

 

[highrep87]

Originally Posted by JState33

temporarily

 

[itsaNYthing]

Yes. A lot too.

 

[angeezy]

of course

 

[the fame]

Originally Posted by The Yes Guy

Originally Posted by GTEK

Originally Posted by The Yes Guy

Anyone that answers no is kidding themselves. Pretty much all of our life is centered around obtaining more material things.

I don't think just material things can make you happy, but if you don't have them you probably won't be happy.

Quoted for lie.

Lie? Go give away all your things then and see how happy you are. You're on a forum about shoes and have shoes in your avatar. You clearly care about material things. Material things doesn't mean super expensive TVs or cars, it means things in general. Hell, money is material. I don't like to judge people, but based on this and other posts you have tried to argue with me in, you are clearly fairly naive.

The guy who posted about how his aunt has a lame car and lame TV tried to say that she is happy without having nice things, but she still has things. She was able to upgrade her TV, so she has money, and she has two car, however lame by NT standards they may be. Liking art is a material thing. If someone is making money, they have the ability to get things. Someone without money won't have things, and most likely won't be happy. Let's erase "material things" from the argument and just use "money" instead. You can't be happy with only money, but without money it's very hard to be happy. Someone who doesn't own lots of material things but still makes "good money" is much different from someone without money and no material things.

Mez One, A steak is a material thing.

****

. This is the dumbest analogy I have seen in a while.
Dude said material things shouldnt make someone. Never once did he say he couldnt use them.

 

[vsano]

Yup...As long as you don't put it above your loved ones or yourself...

 

[imperialh8]

Apparently "MATERIAL THINGS" to THE YES GUY means anything in the world including a stick that you hold in your hand...

I think you put your foot so far down your throat you are now stating things that are irrelevant to what the OP is truly meaning to what "materialthings" he is talking about. If that is what you believe "material things" are


To what I believe "material things" represents are things that are beyond necessity....