Money = Happiness ?

Today I met with two different Beida friends. Ironically, both conversations ended up being about the emphasis students seem to put on money making. It astonishes me how common it is to find students applying for jobs simply based on the amount of money they can be expected to make or how it might make them look if they land a job with such and such a company. I think it is really unfortunate that so many talented students can’t think of anything else to do with their lives than how to make a lot of money. There is so much more to this world than money and yet it seems that all modern society seems to emphasize is consumerism and wealth acquisition. In high school, I remember my math teacher telling our class that each and every one of us was smart enough to make a million dollars if we really wanted to; so rather than spend our time thinking about how to make money, we should think about what we were interested in doing or how we could contribute to society.

I brought the issue of contributing to society up with my Beida friends and their response was that Chinese people in general just don’t have the concept of social responsibility. Chinese people are used to following the crowd 随潮流走; because by following the crowd, the chances of bringing harm to one’s life are minimized. Now that way of thinking is inherently flawed in my opinion. But I don’t blame people for thinking that way, at least the majority of people. However, when it comes to the well educated elite, I feel there is a greater responsibility to society that few of this class seem to share.

Thinking about my own school, I realized how this is equally the case at Stanford as it is at Beida. Students care more about prestige and wealth than about making the world a better place, because after all, who cares if the world is a better place so long as you are happy. But I guess that begs the fundamental question: “Can money and prestige bring you happiness?” or put differently, “Can one equate money and prestige with happiness?” What makes me a bit depressed is that I think one can equate the two in our modern society. Why? Well because from a very young age we are shown images that money and prestige put smiles on people’s faces, particularly your parents—which is really important in Chinese culture—and it seems to be what every dream is made of both in books and in movies. It is so ingrained in us that there is little hope for us to develop a counter argument somewhere along the long and complicated road that leads to adult maturity. Even isolated within the comfort and well protected boundaries of a university, one is hard pressed to withstand the onslaught that is modern society. It is even more so today what with the advent of the internet and high speed broadband.

I personally feel like I shouldn’t have to worry about money, but when everything around me seems to say otherwise, I must admit that it is hard to stay steadfast in my beliefs. After all human beings are weak and the eye is easily enticed by shiny things.

You know, the more I think about it the more I realize how hard life really is. Thinking about stuff makes life harder; if you just follow the crowd, then life becomes pretty simple. But on the flip side, if you just follow the crowd— are you really living?