Money can bring happiness for sure - and it can also bring unhappiness. Even any happiness it does bring can be fleeting - and the happiness it brings is very much dependent on so many other things anyway. There is so much more to life and to being truly happy and fulfilled than money - but a severe shortage of money can certainly cause a great deal of unhappiness - as can the misuse of it.

People who live in dire poverty will suffer in many ways. They may worry about where their next meal is coming from and may go hungry a lot of the time. Obviously to have money with which to eat well brings its own significant happiness. Having a roof over your head and not having to either live on the streets or in emergency accommodation - or to worry about whether you will be evicted for want of money to pay the rent - brings happiness to those who have reason to appreciate it. Being able to make your home nice and comfortable, to beautify it and improve it (and your lifestyle) in various ways brings happiness. In fact, for many people, being able to do this gradually brings far more happiness than people are likely to have when they can easily buy a mansion outright.

Being able to afford treats for your children brings happiness. How bad do parents feel when they cannot afford to buy nice Christmas and birthday presents for their children - or to take them on special outings - or to even pay for a school excursion?

In western society we don't have to worry about not being able to send our children to school because education itself is free. But there are people who cannot afford the things their children need for school - uniforms, books and stationery, etc. Imagine the unhappiness caused by a lack of money for such things. The children would certainly feel very miserable about it - and the parents would feel terrible about their inability to provide such things.

As for families in third world countries - imagine the unhappiness caused by the unimaginable poverty they live in? Think what it must be like to go for days on end without being able to provide anything more than maybe a little flour and water or rice for your children - and to have no hope in sight of that situation ever improving. Just think for a moment of the millions of children getting sick and dying because of disease caused by malnutrition, polluted water, unsanitary living conditions and no medical attention. Only recently I read some utterly shocking articles online

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