Written by Samarpan Majumdar
This is one of the old and famous topic that is being discussed and has been a topic of interesting debate for a long time. But no one could ever prove or conclude this in such a way that it could solve all the corresponding queries regarding it. Actually, this is all about different perspectives. All of us make our decisions according to our needs, plans, and priorities. So, we can never have a permanent solution to the question: Is money everything?
It can be said without hesitation that our ultimate goal is to achieve mental peace. Now the question can be rearranged like this: is it money that leads us to achieve that ultimate goal, or can we feel that we’ve achieved mental peace just by having money? If not, then the debate would immediately end. But when the answer is yes, then there will be two new questions to be answered. And that is: how much money would be enough for it? And for how long will that mental peace remain? No one can answer these because these things are completely variable. Hence, we can easily conclude that money is a variable quantity.
If a person has a tendency to spend a lot of money without a strong need, then for that person, the required amount of money to be happy or to get long-term mental peace would be a huge amount. But the same is true for a person who is not materialistic and spends a marginal amount of money to live; a little money is required to make him or her happy. And there comes the role of allurement. Once a person gets an overwhelming supply of money without working for it and this thing keeps going on and on, that person will definitely be allured. Now the person’s requirement for money wouldn’t be as same as it was before. So, things get more complex.
And we must take into account people who are obliged to spend or have a lot of debt. To make them happy or to release their mental stress, a lot of money is required. There is no case of allurement. We know everyone has faced some situations where an instant supply of money is necessary to make that situation better. In those cases, money becomes everything that can help them get out of trouble and gain mental peace.
We should think about different places as well. The money required to live peacefully in a small village in India is definitely not as much as the money required to live in the world’s most expensive city. Different lifestyles require different amounts of money. And lifestyle changes depending on the place where you live.
Altogether, we can conclude that money is a ‘person-dependent’, ‘time-dependent’, as well as a ‘place-dependent’ variable. How can such a variable thing be the ultimate or everything? Money is obviously ‘something’ that affects the lifestyle. It’s undoubtedly an important factor. But this variable factor can’t be called ‘nothing’ or ‘everything’. So, money is not everything.
