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3.) Is having a lot of material goods a help or hindrance to happiness? Why are some people able to be happy with little, while others with more are miserable?
No. Material goods would be, or is, the opposite of happiness for many people, weather they realize it or not. Material objects leads to wanting more material objects, wanting to show off more, wanting everything bigger, better. People become obsessed with wanting to impress, and maybe wanting to compensate for something they could never have, maybe as a child there family couldn’t afford a nice car, and so getting one now makes them feel better about how there childhood may have ended up. Material objects could very often lead to being fake, hiding behind what you have instead of finding out who you are and then showing that to the world. People could just see you as a lot of money, spoiled, rich, and nothing beyond that, however, some people could want to use their money as a mask. For many people though, money is not the key to happiness. The old saying “money can’t buy happiness” is a statement that still holds true today. For many people, money gets in the way of what is really important, their friends and family. Having enough money for a decent house, decent car, and decent education for their kids is all many people want, and for them, that allows them to do what they need to do, and get along on just that. People with a lot of money can be miserable with the circumstances for several reasons. Being stereo typed for one, called rich is something many people wouldn’t want. Feeling guilty, many people with more money then they need spend it in ways that they don’t need to, a bigger better house, a nicer faster car, lavish furnishings, and many things, then they hear of the poverty in the rest of the world and feel guilty, bringing on the misery. People with very little, but enough to get by are typically very happy people because they have learned to accept themselves, not having money or expensive, lavish things to hide behind. People with a smaller amount of material objects are quite often closer to their families and friends. They don’t have as much of a barrier, helping them to relate when someone is going through financial troubles, and in the end getting closer to that person. The contrast of someone with a lot of money, compared to someone who doesn’t have much, is very obvious by just being around them for a short period of time, in my own life I have noticed people with more money tell about things they have done, places they have gone, typically very costly things, while people without that lifestyle talk about people they know, fun memories that happened in their own living room. Having money or not having money doesn’t determened how happy a person is, the real question is how they spend that money, or how they view themselves that makes them who they are.