• Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I’m all but certain the whole “money can’t buy happiness” shtick is just classist propaganda to keep the peasants poor by trying to build some kind of weird pride in staying poor.

    Money can buy freedom, and while freedom doesn’t guarantee happiness, it’s a pretty fucking important ingredient.

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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    2 months ago

    Money alone can’t buy happiness, but it sure helps with the down payment.

  • Rooty@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    As the saying goes, money can’t buy you happiness but a lack of money can buy you a lot of misery. Enough money for a comfortable lifestyle, anything over that and we enter ego validation territory.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      2 months ago

      The one I heard is money can’t buy you happiness but it can buy you a helicopter, which is almost as good

    • notabot@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      It buys a reduction in unhappiness, which is a good first step to hapiness, but money can’t take you the next step of actually appreciating what you’ve got.

  • ameancow@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    A few years ago I was stealing water from a construction site so my partner and I could flush the toilet. Parked in a development lot in the middle of the night, watching for security guards while I filled a bunch of plastic organizer bins in the back of a van.

    We were several years into a total financial crashout from a combination of major health problems, deaths in the family, and a floundering job market. Things are better now, but I can say at least that I know now what it feels like to lose everything and claw your way back out of the hole. I don’t recommend it, it sucks.

    Our nation doesn’t want you to succeed. Remember that. In order for the wealthy to stay wealthy, there has to be a class of people who have less or nothing so that money retains value. We’re the richest fucking nation that’s ever existed, many times over, so if we really wanted we could end poverty, we could end hunger and disease and make a glorious world where everyone is comfortable and able to aim for their own dreams without risk of losing everything and having to steal water to flush the fucking the toilet.

    We’re not in that world for the simple reason that a tiny fraction of people want to have things and they want other people to envy them.

  • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Honestlyyyy.

    My biggest issue rn is credit card debt. My dog needed multiple surgeries and my car needed fixed. I have 2 maxed out cards and no interest until November. It’s only like 6k to pay off, but it’s still overwhelming because I’ve never had to deal with this type of thing before. I think I can get it all paid off before November, but it’s still a daunting task.

    Rip my fun summer plans.

    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Yeah, life always seems to throw expensive problems at people all at the same time. I thought I had a pretty good nest egg saved up, and then boom… Car shit the bed, cat needed surgery, wife had a hospital stay, and a few other big life events. All while the economy is in the garbage, inflation is in the high double digits, the wife is out of work (due to the aforementioned hospital stay), and any hope of a social safety net was being dismantled right in front of me.

      I didn’t even consciously realize how stressed I was about money, until I realized I had fallen back to pirating my PC games instead of just buying them. I hadn’t been a prolific pirate since my broke college student days… And then suddenly there I was again, browsing FG’s site for the latest repack, so I could install it in between shifts.

      • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I found myself going to my mom’s place every day for dinner for a week and taking leftovers home. Now she’s just automatically freezing portions for me. She knows my ass is BROKE

  • DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Meh. I grew up dirt poor, and I am now what past me would have considered successful.

    Funny thing about it, though, I’m still me. I’m that same dirt poor teenager, just older. It didn’t change me like I thought it would.

    Absolutely, the lack of money will make you unhappy. Without a doubt. But I’ve never got a 20% raise and felt 20% happier. You’re always gonna be who you are, money or not.

    • Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I’ve also heard that this advice really only scales until you hit the cost of living price for your area, which supports your idea.

      Its not necessarily “money won’t make you happier”, it’s more “poverty makes you sadder”

    • Devanismyname@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      This so much. I didn’t grow up dirt poor, but also pretty low class. Now I live in the nice part of town and have a somewhat above average pay. Still miserable. Still the depressed loser I always have been. Just more money and a big house. Though, if I was just barely able to make ends meet, I’d be way more miserable.

      • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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        2 months ago

        Neither my wife or I have been able to afford to go to the dentist in over 20 years. I’ve had a general medical checkup once in that time. We make too much to get free care but not enough to afford care. It absolutely kills me because I work for a nonprofit that provides food and other resources to people in need. They’re always talking about their doctors appointments, procedures etc and I’m like, yeah I don’t get that kind of thing.

          • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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            2 months ago

            It’s not like the working class can move. My daughter and her UK boyfriend/fiance want to get married but neither would be able to legally work in the other country. If you can’t get a work visa for a technical specialized job, you’re SOL or you try to find under the table work which is becoming more impossible with governments tracking everything.

  • e$tGyr#J2pqM8v@feddit.nl
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    2 months ago

    Money can’t buy you happiness. But stress due to lack of money destroys people. Working as a volunteer at a homeless shelter has taught me that atleast here in the Netherlands quite some of them stay homeless not because there are no options to get of the street, but because with these options comes all the stress of having to pay the bills. That goes to show how rough it must be to live with financial stress, because living on the street itself is terribly rough, and still some prefer it.

  • Kaboom@reddthat.com
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    2 months ago

    Past a certain point, money can’t buy any more happiness. Sure, you have a house, but what is it worth if there’s no one to share it with?

    • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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      2 months ago

      There’s always gold-digging hoes. (That includes men too.) When people only want your money, you literally have to go out of your way to make your own happiness…

    • remon@ani.social
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      2 months ago

      but what is it worth if there’s no one to share it with?

      You can pay people for that.