Money (Is That What I Want?)

Whether or not money can buy well-being, it’s certainly crucial (in capitalist societies at least) for the basic necessities of life, like food, shelter, clothing, health care, and education. It’s true that you can get a great education at your local library; in many European countries you can see your doctor without paying a dime; and in places like Sweden there’s still no tuition cost, believe it or not, for a bachelor’s degree. But even if you as an individual aren’t spending money when you go to the library, somebody is. (Libraries, for example, are generally funded by governments, which means that taxpayers foot the bill.) So if we want people in society to have a decent level of well-being, it seems like we’re going to have to throw some money at the problem.

That said, there’s also all sorts of valuable work that people do for free, like cooking for their families, inviting people over for game night, or playing a free concert in the park; all those things bring joy, without costing a penny. Conversely, making a decent wage doesn’t guarantee that you’ll live the life you want, since there are plenty of things money can’t buy. You can make a zillion dollars by climbing over everybody else and stomping on them, but when you get to the top you may suddenly realize—surprise, surprise—you don’t have any friends. And if you think at that point you can just make new friends by inviting everyone over to play with all your shiny toys, think again. After all, who wants friends who are just using you for your shiny toys? Aristotle would say they’re not real friends in the first place.

So when it comes to the hyper-rich, there’s an argument to be made that all that extra money doesn’t in fact buy a ton of extra happiness. But what about the rest of us: people who just want a few more bucks so we can buy that comfortable mattress, take that cool philosophy class, or go to that concert by our favorite band? Money clearly makes those things possible. Or at least it does if your society permits it. In Apartheid-era South Africa, even if you had the money you weren’t allowed to go into some venues unless you were White. Same in the pre-Civil-Rights US: if you weren’t the right color, it didn’t matter how much money you had. You still couldn’t eat at every restaurant, or shop at every store.

What should we say, then, about money and human flourishing? Some of the best things in life—philosophy, poetry, family—really are free. In a healthy society, a little extra cash helps us do more philosophy, read more poetry, and spend more time with the family (rather than burning the midnight oil to make ends meet). And even in an unhealthy society—and we hear those may possibly be on the rise?—it may well be preferable to have a little cash, since between being poor and mistreated is presumably even worse than being rich and mistreated. But can’t we all do a little better? How can we shift the focus away from GDP and onto things that really matter? Our guest will give us the answers: it’s Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at UMass Amherst.