Wealth and Happiness 1.
The first text “The Sandra Bullock Trade” says that marital happiness is more important than anything else in determining happiness. If you have a good marriage, then no matter how many personal setbacks you have, you will always be reasonably happy. If you do not have a good marriage the no matter how many career triumphs you gain, you will still be unfulfilled. It also says that the relationship between happiness and income is complicated for instance poor nations become happier as they become middle-class. But when they achieved the basic things, the income is not that important anymore. At the same time the text also says that if you join a group it makes you just has happy as if you double your income. In the end the text mentions two impressions, the first one is that from all the research you can see that economic and professional success exists on the surface of life and it comes from interpersonal relationships and that is way deeper and more important. The other impression is that we pay attention to the wrong things. We overestimate the fact that money will make our lives better.
Text number 2 is “But Will It Make You Happy?” it starts with saying that consumers spend more and spend less than they have done in a long time. It also says that new studies of consumption happiness show that people are happier when they spend money on experiences than when they buy material objects. Yet the text says that scholars haven’t found out whether Armani or Dolce Gabbana will make you happier than on another. But on the other hand they have found out that, types of purchases, the type of purchase, their frequency and the timing of spending all have an effect on long-term happiness. But one big finding is that money for experiences gives a longer-lasting satisfaction. 2.
First he mentions Sandra Bullock, she is a very well-known actress, and he starts with giving the reader an impression of David Brooks as a sensationalist. Because he tells about her life, starting with the sensation that she won an Academy Award for best actress and then he mentions a scandal that her husband cheated on her. He asks the reader questions as well such as “Would you exchange a tremendous professional triumph for a severe personal blow?”, after the question he is thinking a little bit about it, by mentioning som the things Sandra Bullock will achieve from winning an Academy Award. She has earned admiration, she will make more money and she might even live longer. He also engages the reader in the text when he for instance writes “Nonetheless, if you had to take more than three seconds to think about this question, you are absolutely crazy.” With this sentence he insults the reader by calling them crazy and then you want to continue reading because you want an apology from David Brooks or maybe an answer for why you have been called crazy. 3. There is a difference between the two texts; text number 2 says that money can make you happy in the extent that if you spend money on experiences it will make you happier. Text number 3 says that money will not make you happier because making money just gives us something to do otherwise we would be bored doing nothing. This already gives us the overall difference the first text is of the opinion that money can make you happy to some extent and the second text has the opposite opinion that money only makes you feel worse. The first text tells us that we spend money on experiences which will make us happy, but then the other text says that people with a high income only spent more time in experiences which are associated with negative feelings such as tension and stress. Stephanie Rosenbloom is also more positive about people and spending money; she even shows us research that we are saving more money and spending less and at the same time when we finally spend money, the experiences we buy makes us happier. Peter Singer looks at it in a more negative way. He says that we only make money because otherwise we would be bored and it lies in our nature as purposive beings. We want to achieve something, not just sit at home doing nothing. You can say that there are different opinions on whether there is a connection between happiness and wealth. Some says that money can make you happy to some extent and others says that it will not make you happy, just in a better mood.