from the m.i.t. press, a detailed look into just that question. the standard answer is “money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you things that contribute to your happiness, or which help to make that happiness possible”. so what’s the difference? semantics, seems to me. this essay attempts to look a bit deeper at the question. one thing i’ve always wondered though, why do people think happiness is a baseline value? why is happiness considered the norm and any other mental state as something divergent which needs to be fixed through copious amounts of meds, analysis, counseling, etc? happiness can not exist alone and is not the default setting of consciousness. it is not concrete. it is not and could never be an infinitely sustained quantity. it is simply one emotional temperature in the flux, and that’s all. it is not the holy grail. essentially i guess i’m saying i don’t think it’s the point of life… any more than money is.