1

Running Head: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Consumerism and Happiness

Review of Literature

Nestor Arrieta

University of Texas at El Paso

Esther Al-Tabaa

April 2, 2020
 2
Running Head: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Abstract

While a common goal of humanity is to find happiness, a common question that

seems to strongly split opinions is whether or not money is at the root of happiness. Money is a

crucial part of life because it is what gives people the opportunity to discover what makes them

happy, but does that mean that without money someone can’t be happy? Psychologist Ed Diener

of the University of Illinois stated that “Materialism is toxic for happiness”, which could be

taken as a strong statement that money cannot buy happiness but rather make us less happy.

There is also the notion that money no longer buys what it once used to.
 3
Running Head: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Review of Literature

The topic of money has been a relatively taboo subject for many decades,

however, for some individuals it is the key to happiness, and for others not so much. Being in the

age where nearly everything can be bought from your sofa, while it is more convenient, does not

always mean that it makes people any happier. With social media being a large part of people’s

lives, it comes as no surprise when people are unhappy with their lives when compared directly.

But can money magically make them happy? When looking from an outside perspective of

course the people who seem to be the happiest are the ones with the most money. However, is

that always the case? One example of this would be the late Robin Williams, a man who had a

net worth estimated as high as $130 million was not happy with his own life (Business Insider,

2014, para. 3). Another instance of a famous celebrity who was not happy with his life despite

his wealth is Heath Ledger (semanticscholar.org, 2017, para.2). On the flip side of the figurative

and literal coin, people with lower incomes have often been seen with very happy lives. There is

no denying that money is everywhere and a major influence on people’s lives, from musicians

such as The Beatles who claim, “Money can’t buy me love”, to Cardi B and her song talking

about only wanting money. As the line between economic classes keeps getting father apart, can

the same be said for people’s happiness in regard to their respective incomes.

This research will attempt to answer four questions:

1.) What is consumerism?

2.) Is happiness the same for everyone?

3.) What are the positives to having more money?

4.) Can money buy happiness?

What defines consumerism?

Consumerism as defined by Meriam-Webster online Dictionary (Meriam-

Webster.com, n.d.) is “the theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically

desirable”. To put that definition in simpler terms is the idea that the more things purchased is

more attractive economically. An example given by Meriam-Webster is that “Picking up a

smartphone during commercial breaks is arguably better than being bombarded with the

consumerism of late-stage capitalism.”. Consumerism is the idea that the more people buy, the

happier and better they will be in their socio-economic status, which would then be presumed to

raise happiness levels and cause the consumer to spend more to be even more happy.

Material consumerism

Material consumerism is based on the main definition of consumerism, just with

the addition of purchases being more material and product based, rather than experience and

memory based. Many companies such as American Express, Mastercard, Visa just to name a few

have greatly benefited from developing a system in the late 1950’s where people could take a

card filled with “unlimited” money that they could use for whatever and wherever they pleased,

and could pay back in small payments with fees. That’s great right, the ability to buy whatever

even if you don’t have the money available, well unfortunately no. soon after in the mid 1960’s

the stock market crashed hard but luckily nothing like the 1920’s stock market crash. What this

crash meant was people had no money to their names but vast amounts of credit card debt.

Is happiness the same for everyone?

The idea that money is the universal answer for people’s happiness has been used

for several generations, and while for some this may eb the case, people’s idea of happiness is as

similar as their fingerprints. An article published in USA Today (2002) refers to a psychologist at

the University of Illinois as stating “Materialism is toxic for happiness”. Another psychologist in
 5
Running Head: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

that article from Claremont Graduate University, told a story about an older gentleman with the

reading level of a fourth grader but loved to build gardens, he had also turned down various

promotions that came with pay raises and the like, but be preferred to stay with his lower wage

and continue to do what made him happy.

An issue discussed in the book Luxury Fever, is that money does not buy the same

things it used to. The beginning story is a man and his grill. A rundown of this is that when the

man originally bought his grill in the 1980’s for an astounding $89.95. Many years later in the

late 1990’s, his old grill is closer to a gas bomb than a grill, so he decides to look for a new one.

$5,000 for a Viking Frontage Professional Grill. That’s 55 of the original for 1 modern grill. That

does not seem like a good deal in the span of 1 decade, granted this is just grills, but the idea that

the money from just 10 years ago can’t come close to buying the same thing in the present. There

are valid reasons for the price increase such as, better materials, increased labor costs and price

of living. When comparing a grill to a car for example then the price change is even more drastic,

and the same applies for luxury items (jewelry, clothing, art).

What are the positives to having more money?

Money isn’t all bad, the world revolves around money and without it the world

would be a very different place. With enough money, anything can be bought, and any place can

be travelled, everything anyone could ever want can be bought…except one minor thing. Time,

the one thing money truly can’t buy. With that taken into consideration, it would make sense to

have the greatest life with the time we are given. With more money, the number of possibilities

to look for happiness increases. After having previously established that happiness is different

for everyone, searching for what makes someone happy is easier with money. Take the example

of luxury, there are various definitions from Cornell University and Meriam Webster to name a
 6
Running Head: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

few. The main concept of luxury is something that is not a necessity but helps to make tasks

easier.

One example in this category is watches. The basic and primary function of a

watch is to tell the time, nothing more. Anything that does anything more than tell the time may

be considered luxury. Then you start adding materials and putting prestigious names on the

watches and before you know it you have a watch that costs more than what someone could

make in a calendar year. A prime contender of this is Patek Philippe, one of their watches sold in

1995 with the asking price of $430,000 would have the value of $3.7 million in 2011. The sheer

amount is enough to happily retire an individual, and yet to some lucky individuals a watch at

that price is something they buy for fun because it makes them happy.

Can money buy happiness?

There are a few questions that can really divide people in terms of either strongly

for or against. The generation old of whether or not money can truly buy happiness is

among that list of dividing questions. In an extremely modest and small survey that took

place in a RWS 1302 course in the spring semester of 2020 at the University of Texas at

El Paso, the results to the very question were a close 60/40 split with the majority in the

opinion that money could not buy happiness (Graph 1). Another question in that same

survey was over the topic of buyer’s remorse. What buyer’s remorse is essentially the

regret of making a purchase of any amount. The results of that question were a more

unified 73% choosing that they had felt buyer’s remorse (Graph 2). What can be inferred

from those graphs are a couple things. The first observation is that those 2 questions can

be taken hand-in-hand that when people experience buyer’s remorse, they tend to answer
 7
Running Head: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

that money can’t buy happiness. The second thing to take from these graphs is there is a

strong percentage of people who do believe that money can buy happiness.

Graph 1 Can money buy happiness. Question from SurveyMonkey.com

Graph 2 Have you ever had buyer’s remorse. Question from

Conclusion

While there is no denying that money is what controls the world we live in, it

does not impact everyone in the same way and happiness is no exception. People are

unique, and part of their uniqueness is what makes them happy. To some people a modest

job with a life filled with memories filled with loved ones is all they need, and for some,

living in houses and going places that most will never experience is what brings them joy.

What can be said is that just because we all have different versions of happiness does not

give us the opportunity to bad mouth or act negative toward others.

References

Bjørnskov, C. (2008). Social capital and happiness in the United States. Applied Research in

Quality of Life, 3(1), 43–62.

Elias, M. (2002). Psychologists now know what makes people happy. USA Today.

Frank, R. H. (2000). Luxury fever: Money and happiness in an era of excess. Princeton

University Press.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consumerism

Yo’Av Dar, S. H., Pan, X., Sohr, S., & Vittoria, R. (2014) Trends of Luxury Watches.

How important are the things you buy? survey results (2020)

https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-XJ9WZ7HM7/