What is a million dollars worth?

This sounds like a nonsensical question. Of course, a million dollars is worth a million dollars.

But how do we really measure what something is worth? How do we know the value of something? As humans we measure value both objectively and subjectively. We measure value in two main ways 1) how the thing objectively aids our survival and 2) how that thing subjectively makes us feel, and the more positive the feelings the better.

First, let’s talk objective survival. If we are given a million dollars the probability of our survival is objectively enhanced. It does not take very much money to nearly guarantee our own survival. Basic food, shelter, clothing and a little medial care can do the trick. To assure our survival in the US, one might refer to the poverty line. The poverty line is an estimate of how much money it takes to survive in the US.

After your objective needs are met, the million dollars can go to work enhancing the way you feel subjectively. A million dollars is worth the amount of happiness that it can buy for you.

So how much happiness does a million dollars buy? Technically, a million dollars can’t buy happiness. Happiness comes from within, it is a self-generated emotion. Happiness is the result of positive evaluations that you make about your life situation.

Practically, however, money can buy happiness. As humans, we constantly tell ourselves stories about how great it would feel if we owned this or that. Marketers help us generate these stories when we watch television commercials. We buy-in to these stories and are very attached to these stories. And after we have bought that new car, like clock-work we tell ourselves all these positive stories about how great it is to own our car. And we do indeed feel happier when we think about these positive stories. This is shopping therapy at its finest; shopping does make us feel happier. It just works.

But notice this, we always feel happy when we tell ourselves positive stories, no matter how much money is in our bank account. The reason we feel happy when we discover we have a million dollars is that we realize that we will get to tell ourselves all the positive stories television marketers have been feeding us for years. But the money isn’t really necessary.

Once we have enough money to survive in the world, then all we really need to be happy is positive stories about our life situation. No additional money is required to be happy.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 6:12 pm and is filed under Happiness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.