Is happy poverty better than rich stress?

Question

What do you think? Are people with lots happy? Are people with little sad? Or is it the other way around?

Answer 1

My husband and I have chosen to work jobs that we really enjoy (that don't particularly pay well) rather than work in jobs that give us a lot of money but no personal satisfaction. We have had times when it's been a struggle to survive on very little money, but we are both really really happy with our life the way it is. I truly believe that the best things in life are free, and I'm at my happiest when sitting around listening to some fantastic music in company with my lovely husband, or going for an evening stroll in the country. Having said that, I wouldn't complain if I won the lottery! Having more money would make our lives easier, but I don't believe that any amount of money would make us any happier than we already are - not possible!

Answer 2

That is an interesting question. I was raised in an upper middle class family and I have seen plenty of people with money who are miserable. I had a friend when I was a teenager whose mother slit her wrists when outwardly it seemed like she had everything to live for. I don't make much, I am a CNA, and my sister is an attorney and my other sister married money. I think there is a difference between outright poverty and making little though. No one wants to live in poverty wondering how they will pay their bills and how they can get along. I think if a person like me who makes little money but has a good life and can afford to pay the bills is better off than the idle wealthy who sit around and wonder what they should do with themselves. Absolute poverty is miserable for everyone, no question about that. On the whole, I would say the average person who can meet their bills and has a good support system and a family that cares about them is better off than someone who is rich and stressed. I know that a lot of people think money can buy happiness, but in a lot of cases it can't.

Answer 3

The UK has no official definition of poverty, no poverty line. Researchers define the poverty line themselves usually in terms of what basics are met or income (some say less than 50% of the median income is poverty). So our definition of poverty is relative. People live in poverty in the UK, but only because it is relative poverty and the standards are higher around people in poverty. We have a very small share of people in absolute poverty, too, but only small. Absolute poverty is where the basics of life are not met. Many African countries have a problem with absolute poverty, for example, because medical care is not provided and people are desperately short of food and clean water.

So I have two answers for you:
1. Happy relative poverty is probably better than being rich and stressed.
2. (There can be no such thing, but) happy absolute poverty is a lot worse than being rich and stressed.

Answer 4

I would opt for rich happiness if it were an option. By the way, hapiness is subjective, relative and very nonquantitative. The happiest of the people do not necessarily have the best of everything, but they make the most of everything thus coming their way. Neither poverty nor riches are destined to bring stress, but both are likely to. But if these terms are given phenomena- "happy poverty" vs "rich stress" then by all means take anything that has happiness in it.

Answer 5

"We was poor but we was 'appy" is a false statement..
It is true that poverty is relative, the augment being that, with food in the belly, adequate clothes on the back and a roof over the head and good companionship is not poverty and therefore a person in this state can be very happy.

A man with many possessions becomes so worried about losing them he is not necessarily particularly happy.

The best is a man somewhere in between, but even he may not be happy.

A feeling of happiness can only come from contentment and that is often a matter of personal disposition

Answer 6

I believe the more money you have - the more you miss it when its gone! If you buy something big and flashy, you'll have to buy something even bigger and flashier to feel the same high out of buying it. You'll end up having to work harder and harder to have more money to keep up with your spending, it all causes a never ending stress of not having enough. You'll always want more.

I think the simpler you live your life the more content you'll be in the long run. Obviously being in poverty isn't a barrel of laughs, but as long as you had enough money for basic survival i think you would live a very contented life. No TV, no newspapers, no internet, no celebrities, no wishing that you had more money, cut off from the rest of the world just you and some villagers on a tropical island - amazing!

Answer 7

Anyone who says, they are happy, when their kids are hungry, the bills are mounting or power, phone, water is being cut off, are being throw into the street to live in a car or cardboard box. Is full of crap. You have a much better outlook and optimism if you have enough to support your family and a little extra. The problem is most people don't know what impoverished really is. They think if they have to pack a lunch to work they are poverty stricken, or if they are on the dole, they think they are poverty stricken. Think about feeding your kids out of a dumpster, cuddling up in a refridgerator box for the night. Do you think that would make you happy.

Answer 8

being happy is always better than being stressed; however, I think that the person under poverty would be more stressed and less happy. if you find yourself to be impoverished and still happy, i think your a unique person, in that you can make the most of any situation and have a good attitude, and i think you could handle being happy while poor ( or rich) depending on which you would rather deal with.

Answer 9

You've kind of misquoted your own question! Yes I do believe happy poverty is better than rich stress (after all, if you're stressed you can't enjoy your wealth because you're too busy doing what it is you do to get stressed in the first place)!!

However, if "people with lots" are merely "people with lots" and not stressed people with lots then I believe they might find it easier to enjoy the things they have but that's not to say people with little are sad! Some people don't strive after consumerist ideals etc etc and so are perfectly happy with the little they have!!!

Do you follow that?!??!?!

Answer 10

I think that most people are happy and sad throughout their lives regardless of their financial status. Money comes with its own responsibilities and rewards which can give you pleasure and stress, just like other things which can be earned and achieved in live.

Individual happiness is generally acquired by achieving things which mean a lot to you. For some it could be money, for others love, and others knowledge.

Therefore if having money means so much to you, then it's acquisition will make you happy.