Context matters. This is an appropriate statement to make to someone who has enough to live a comfortable life but is always chasing more. But to say it to someone struggling to make ends meet is just incredibly disrespectful.
And with all due respect we all know what this meme is about and it isn't the former.
It may be essential, but not sufficient. That's all this statement claims.
Okay but for the vast majority of us living on the precipice of homelessness and always budgeting for how much ramen noodles we can afford it is crass and insensitive and this meme is calling that out.
Unless you are advocating mass redistribution of the ill gotten gains of capital please shut the fuck up with this condescending debate pervert bullshit.
after a certain point*
i doubt someone like elon musk is as happy as he is rich, id argue the opposite.
being debt free and unworried about cash would make me happier tho
"Money can't buy happiness" is a great mantra for rejecting the capitalist enshirining of wealth as a virtue. It's important to see happiness as something more complex than income.
The issue is that when interpreted as "poverty is no excuse for unhappiness", it loses all valid meaning.
See also: "Life isn't fair"
Alternatively, we could say "money can buy happiness, and that's the problem".
Usually it's miserable rich people who say this, and they're miserable because they don't have a soul.
"'Money doesn't buy happiness.' Do you live in America?..because it buys a WaveRunner. You ever see a sad person on a WaveRunner?" -Daniel Tosh
Am I wrong that it's correct in the subject/object sense
If you are lacking in some basic material need then money absolutely can buy happiness
Money can buy happiness, but happiness doesn't have a delivery service. You have to go pick it up yourself.
No happiness... just material needs.
