Summary
In TEDTalk's "The Paradox of Choice:" by Barry Schwart, he talks about how making decisions can lead to certain feelings of happiness. He gives examples such as going to the doctor's office. He exclaims that we have two options for treatment at the doctor's office. Unfortunately, he then says that no matter what choice we decide on, it won’t lead to happiness. Additionally, he also gives an example of picking out clothes. when picking out clothes, you have many options to pick from. if you pick an outfit that you don’t feel your best in, you won’t be satisfied. if you picked a cute outfit that you liked, you would be happy with your choice. For the article, I picked the CNBC article titled “From the ‘Perfect’ salary to keeping up with Joneses, here’s How Money Really Affects Your Happiness” by Cory Stieg. He does research and finds out that in a 2018 study from Purdue University, they concluded that the ideal income point for individuals is 95,000 for life satisfaction and 60,000-75,000 for emotional well-being. After a certain point, if a person makes over 105k, their happiness decreases. “Even the richest folks out there in the world can often look around and find somebody that’s just a teensy, weensy bit richer, and therefore their money not making them as happy as they think.” No matter how much money people make, they compare themselves to others and it can cause ppl to think less of themselves. He then informs us that there is a psychological phenomenon called hedonic adaptation. “every time we experience kind of a rise in income, our aspirations and expectations rise a little bit…” I believe that money does guarantee happiness. for some people, they already had money in their lives from family. However, most grew up in an environment where they couldn’t afford life essentials. when you finally see money flowing into their lives, this gives hope and happiness because they can now afford to buy essentials and maybe gifts for their families. without money, no one would have shelter over their heads, food, or self-care necessities.
