The Desirable Product Amazon.com is one of the most popular internet stores that sells a wide variety of products, and people can find any item by simply typing in the product name. Cars, clothes, books, electronics are sold every day through this internet site. Whenever a person is willing to buy an item, he simply types in the product name, and the search engine returns hundreds of choices for that specific product; the only condition to be satisfied in order to buy the product is to have enough financial resources to pay for the desired item. From this point, an inference could be made that with money on hand people can buy everything. However, at the time when I tried to type in the word happiness, the results did not show any item under…show more content… Yes, at certain levels, this assumption is accurate. The level of happiness increases at the time when people cross the poverty line. To prove this claim, Sharon Begley, the author of “Money and Happiness,” provides the results of a global survey that shows a significant difference between the level of happiness of homeless and slum dwellers in Calcutta. The former rated themselves at 2.9 on a scale of 1 to 7 while the latter rated themselves at 4.9 on the same scale. Thus, at the moment when people cross the poverty line, they became happier: more money brings them more happiness. However, the same survey shows a little difference between the level of happiness of people from wealthy countries and from the poor ones. Consequently, more money does not bring more happiness, and the economists’ assumption is not accurate. Another argument that refutes economists’ claim is described by Daniel Gilbert in Stumbling on Happiness; he opines that money can increase the level of happiness only at the time “when it lifts people out of abject poverty and into the middle class, but that it does little to increase happiness thereafter.” The same survey results prove Gilbert’s argument. The level of happiness of wealthy Americans is the same as the level of well-being of the Inuit of northern Greenland. The latter, according to Begley, do…show more content… Money can increase the level of happiness, but only at the time when people move from one social class to another- “from abject poverty into the middle class.” However, there are different sources of happiness that people should be looking for in their lives, and these sources can bring a level of happiness that persists at any social levels. Finding the meaning of life increases the level of happiness since it helps to overcome life issues. Once finding the purpose, people are fulfilled and more contented. Challenge, as well as meaning, is another source of happiness that people should be looking for. Accomplishing tasks that look impossible at the beginning brings confidence, power, and happiness. Money, however, is a source of happiness that vanished at the time when “wants become needs.” Evidently, money does not buy happiness, but meaning and challenge
