Money Buys Happiness

Ever since I was young, people have always told me that money does not buy happiness. I still believe these people. Currently I attend the University of Wisconsin, majoring in History, not the most money-promising major of the lot, but I don't regret it at all. There are more important things in my life than being able to drive a corvette with authentic aviator sunglasses over my eyes, and a former NFL cheerleader trophy wife that knows how to cook really good Indian food at my side, as I drive over the Golden Gate Bridge to a penthouse looking out over the peasants. I'm not saying all that stuff wouldn't be kind of nice, though.
     Recently, I ran into one of my fellow high school classmates. We conversed, and I learned that she transferred to a public southern university without much national clout. When I asked her what her major was, she said, "I don't know, but that's OK," as if I was going to criticize her immediately after her statement, "I know I want to make a lot of money, though." When she said that, I felt a part of my heart die.
     My entire life, people have told me, "Money does not equal happiness," but it seems a trend within my peers to contradict this old idea. Has there been some sort of new discovery that proved it wrong? A direct quantitative correlation between the size of one's pay cut and one's enjoyment of life?
     Some friends and I saw the 1989 film When Harry Met Sally a few days ago. I thought the film was well acted and directed, managing to look less dated than, say, Nickelodeon's 1996 offering Goodburger. One element that annoyed one of my friends, as well as myself, is how the main characters' were exceedingly rich, but seemed obsessed with their modern romantic issues. Both Harry and Sally graduated from the University of Chicago, lived in classy New York apartments, held lucrative and secure jobs, were fairly attractive, and had no noticeable health problems. Despite all their blessings, the film presented their romantic tensions as if nothing else mattered; not all of us are bourgeois white people living in the insulated little world of New York.
     After some thought, I realized When Harry Met Sally taught me an important lesson, even if you have everything, you will still find way to make yourself think that you are suffering or deprived. It's true, money doesn't buy happiness. I knew it all along.