TED Talks are great. Everybody always sounds extremely intelligent and enlightened, and they all use cool microphones attached to their heads. However, one in particular speaks to the notion that money cannot buy happiness very aptly. The TED Talk, which was given by Michael Norton, an economist I assume, talks about happiness levels in relation to the way people spend their money. Essentially what he found was that when people spend money on themselves, their happiness levels don’t go up. However, when people spend money on others, their happiness levels do go up. It makes sense that spending money on others would make you happier because helping others feels good, but what was surprising was the fact that people who spent money on themselves weren’t even a little happier. This contrasts sharply with the values I think a lot of us were raised with which essentially say that more money affords us more goods and more peace and comfort, and thus we are happier. An article from the New York Times also speaks to this idea. In “Don’t Indulge. Be Happy,” we are told that as people make more money, they tend to be happier, but only to a certain point. Once people make more than about $70,000 a year, which is considered a comfortable salary, more money doesn’t necessarily mean more happiness. Although we live in a capitalist society where money speaks louder than anything, it seems that money is simply not everything. According to Michael Norton, helping others does your happiness more good than helping yourself. What I think we as a society need to consider is whether we value happiness over senseless wealth. Though wealth can buy you things, what is the point of buying things when they won’t make you happy?