MONEY AND HAPPINESS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 71, 20 September 1930, Page 25

MONEY AND HAPPINESS

'Put money in thy purse, and again put money in thy purse, for to lack money is to lack the common privileges t of a man. 5' I found this exhortation in a book of . George Gissing's—a man who knew | something of both the outer and inner | meaning of poverty—and I wondered i how far he was expressing a general t feeling, writes Thomas Burke in the ' "Sunday News." . . . ■ , Is it possible to be fully happy withi out money? Does not the lack of it . expose us to all manner of humiliations, handicaps, and unecessary dis- • tress? Are we not cut off from partieipa- ; lion in many delightful things? ! Those who want the things that have i to be fought for cannot, I think, lead , a fujl life without money, and as wo are i in this life so short a time, it is the natural desire of every normal man to , lead a full life. Poverty, of course, is relative. The poverty of the nun, or of the gpysy, is not as the poverty of those who live in the economic stress of the world. Even the poverty of the poor is relative. If you have enough money to maintain the standards of life of those among whom you live, you are not poor. You are only poor when your money does not reach to the standards to which your tastes and education accustom you. Money can bring happiness; I have seen it do it again and again. I have seen poor people, overwhelmed by trouble, thrown into ecstasies by a gift of five pounds. I have seen the moral tone of a whole family' changed for the better by a small inheritance. Years ago I had a friend who had spent his early youth in poverty. He was bitter, querulous, and gloomy. Ho believed in nothing and nobody. Suddenly he became successful in his work, and his whole nature changed. Ho blossomed into kind acts and Where he had" been mean ho was generous. Where he had been bitter ho was kind.

SAVINGS THE ROOT OF CONTENT

All done by money and the new view of life that money opened to him. playful humour, and that happiness which disseminates happiness. As for money being the root of all evil, you havo only to read police court and criminal court records to realise the vast amount of evil that is nowhere concerned with money. No; even if we grant that money cannot,' in every' case, create happiness, we must admit thai in all cases it is a great intensifies of happiness and a great lessener' of sorrow and suffering. A few pounds make ail the difference between receiving the attention of a doctor at your own time, and waiting for hours in the cheerless lobby of a hospital until overworked staff can attend you. . A few pounds saved make all the difference in the face a man can present to the world when seeking employment; ho does not, like the thriftless man, havo to take the first wretched thing that offers and permit himself to be trodden upon because he dare not risk his job by asserting himself "Put money in thy purse," for while money is the medium of the world's exchange, you will know little of the world without it. There are many people like that friend who sa-ys^ he is happy without money; but if you esamine their cases you will find that they are living very meagre lives. They have the simple pleasures common to all of us—the pleasures of fields and woods, sun and wind, children and food a,n& sleep—but there' are many beautiful things and experiences which they miss, and which, with a little money, they could have. Content is one thing; happiness is another. Happiness, given the essential peace of mind, comes with leisuro, knowledge, and constant experience of all sorts of worlds. You cannot get those things without money. .