https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDkv6Mi8JrI
Saw a documentary called “Happy” and while walking away with many notes to self, this was striking:
“A 2010 Princeton University study said that the benchmark for achieving happiness is a $75,000 salary. Above that amount, people reach a plateau, after which more money has no significant impact on day-to-day contentment levels.
A Marist poll released this week contends that happiness yardstick might even be lower. According to Marist, “annual household income of $50,000 is an important tipping point in personal happiness and satisfaction with life.”
*** then the film went to say something like there being no difference in level of happiness whether the person made $75,000 or $7 million a year. The film showed a man living in the poorest squalor conditions who smiled and said he was happy… while I know of many who have 1000 times more material wealth and the best of education but not half as happy as this man living in poverty. I did think that having lots of money may be nice as that assurance of financial security will give you true freedom – freedom of not having to do something you did not want to do – sounds like a dream doesn’t it? Apparently having the choice to whatever you want does not make you happy… With lots of fortune, I then argued I would basically donate to foundations and make a world a better place – but apparently that does not necessarily make you a happier person than that poor bare footed man in the slums with little choice but to endure grueling humiliating work where he is exploited by those who take advantage of him… Still, he says he is happy.
I do know many people with more money than they can spend in a lifetime, who thinks they do not have enough… Then there’s Sting’s latest announcement that he will leave nothing to his 6 kids from his amassed fortune. Some of the headlines are:
*Why my children will not be inheriting my £180million fortune: Sting wants his sons and daughters to earn their way (and says he’s spending all his money anyway)
*Sting Is Stingy! Singer Says His Six Children Won’t Inherit Much of His Reported $300 Million Fortune
*Sting’s Children Will Not Inherit A Penny Of His $300 Million Fortune
*** and so on goes the tabloids.
I don’t know how he would spend “all his money” but maybe what he means by commitments is how he is giving away to worthy causes – one would hope.
“I told them there won’t be much money left because we are spending it! We have a lot of commitments. What comes in we spend, and there isn’t much left…I certainly don’t want to leave them trust funds that are albatrosses round their necks. They have to work. All my kids know that and they rarely ask me for anything, which I really respect and appreciate.”
It’s true love – he knows that money cannot buy happiness; only love can. And I might add, health, that sense of well-being (“happiness”) is a reflection of love to self and others.
