Is money more important than your life?

A child asks his father to give him twenty five dollars without a reason. His father questions his son’s need for money; however, he still gives his son what he has asked for. After receiving the money, the son asks his father how much he gets paid per hour of work. His father answers that. With the salary of a doctor, he is paid fifty dollars for each hour of work at the hospital. Then the little child holds his father’s hand and leads him to his little room, takes him to his bed, and then turns over his pillow. It surprises the father when he sees another twenty five dollars already laying there. It is the money that the little son asked his mother to give him the other day. Now, he gives all of the fifty dollars to his father as a payment for one hour to stay and play with him. Does this little story make you think? Does this situation sound familiar to you? Why does the child have to do this? It’s because of money; money cut off the link between the father and the son. Many people think that money is more important than anything in their live; however, there is still something very important that money can’t buy. Money is very powerful and can help people buy everything they want, achieve whatever they need. That is the thought of most of the populace. Many people include the word money when they were asked to pick five things considered important to their lives. In a short article, “ Money, Markets and Madness, ” Vanessa Baird addresses “…what money means to us as human beings: the extraordinarily dominant role it plays in our societies, in our psyches, and in determining our very survival” (2). People use it every day to trade goods, such as buying clothes, food, and shelter. In this way, money is important to humans because it is used to exchange goods based on their needs. However, because of greed, some people turn it into something more important than their lives. They try to get as much money as they can even when they have to go out and do the bad things. They let money control their brains. They feel satisfied when they have more money than their peers; it is a fake happiness in a competition with no target. Money cannot buy happiness as a substitute for love. Men usually spend most of their time at work. Many husbands think that money can substitute for their presence. They believe that their wives will happy with the money they bring back while it doesn’t matter if they stay home or not. The truth is women need to be loved; they need someone to take care and spend time with them. That is one of the big reasons for divorce. Some parents work all day and night to earn money. They think that their children will be happy if they provide them anything they want, and then they don’t stay at home much to care for their children. That is a big mistake because children really need the care and the guidance of parents. If this is not true, then the story about the child and father would never have been told. That is also one of the reasons why teenagers have bad behavior, act strangely, and become involved in crime, because they feel as if no one cares for them. It is hard to live in peace if people consider money as the target of their lives. Many people work every day even weekends. Some of them might work several jobs at a time. Others might work in good conditions, which offer them high salaries, including many benefits. But what if they don’t have enough time to enjoy what they have achieved? What if they don’t have any time to spend with their families? This situation will give them big stress throughout their lives. Money in this way, which cannot bring back to them a comfortable life with happiness, can create great depression in people’s mind. Writing about the effects of money, Laura Young, a life coach, says: Particularly for those who are self-employed or business owners, for whom so much thought must be given to income streams and the monetization of their lives, the issue of money and the place it has in one’s life may be a psychological minefield. The costs of attaining financial prosperity may pose more of a threat to the peace of mind and sense of security we assume money will bring than we realize. (1) It is very dangerous if someone suddenly becomes a slave to money. For example, people in the mafia earn a great deal of money; the number can go up to the billions. But what they did to bring back that big amount of money is illegal business, such as killing, drugs contraband, which affect community life. In Laura Young’s article, “ The Effect of Money on Our Thinking, ” she also refers to the recent report in Science, which concludes, “ Being overly preoccupied with money, especially for the ‘wrong’ reasons, is characteristic of those who score highly on a measure of materialism, and such people tend to be less happy than others” (1). Other people like to profit from gambling. I have witnessed the separation of many families because the parents are addicted to gambling. Debt increases each day until their families have to live without a house. Children have to drop out of school and have to go out and seeks job to feed themselves. No one wants his/her family fall into this terrible situation. Once again, money is important, but it is not everything. There are many things more precious than money, such as our lives, family, love, and happiness. Money can help us to maintain our basic needs for living, but it is not worth it to trade it for everything you have. Humans should not let money take control over them since it is nothing, compared to the happiness of life.