There are tons of people who understand that true happiness does not come from material wealth. It's true we are outnumbered, especially in American culture, but we do exist. It's up to you to seek out like-minded people if you want to be happy in life because it truly is all about the people in your life that make you happy. I recommend you try to do some traveling, most of the world is not like this. I've traveled to dozens of countries and while everybody loves their fashion, trust me (almost) nobody gives a fuck how you dress in comparison to who you are. Follow your passion and you will find your people.

Modern capitalism is like the Easter Bunny...built on a mishmash of perverted, irrational ideas, but a really comfy bedtime story for children who never outgrow the need for sweets produced by invisible workers, where the pretty wrappers are often of higher quality than the contents.

I am struggling to come up with what to say to a person who has reached the age of 40 and not found meaning in life beyond money and material things. I wish we could have a face to face conversation!

I agree with @1 even though I have never been able to travel the world, because I have not had the money or opportunity to do so. Travel will open your eyes and show you that life is not about what Americans believe it to be. I have so many friends who have been so fortunate to travel the world. I am happy for them and I have been able to see the world through their experiences (and by watching Anthony Bourdain, too, truthfully).

Friends who have spent time in Africa have lived with people who literally have nothing and they are happy and willing to share the nothing they have with others. I have friends who work with African refugees (girls), you can hear their stories and learn about their lives at I'll Tell You my Story (dot) com.

I grew up poor, my mother poorer than that (far worse than anything I could even imagine) and my grandmother grew up in poverty so severe it is unfathomable to anyone in this country today, except maybe those who live in Appalachia. I learned from them what it means to value what you have, not compare yourself to others, and to find joy in life because it is everywhere, in a cup of home brewed coffee, a walk on the beach (the entire coast of Oregon is free and accessible to everyone, well all able bodied people anyway), time spent outside in the park, libraries full of books (and these days CDs and DVDs and computers and workshops and community events), etc. Money is not required for a lot of things in life.

One way that worked for me (doesn't mean it would work for you) is to volunteer, if you have the ability to do so. When I moved to NYC I made $18K the first year I lived there (in 1998). I loved music and lived to see concerts. I volunteered for LIFEbeat at night, a non-profit organization started in the '80s to help the music industry with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. I did tablings at shows - handing out free condoms and educating people about how to protect themselves and telling them all about LIFEbeat and the work they did. I saw hundreds of shows over two years this way (and no, I didn't get to see only shows I wanted to see, that's not how it worked, but I got to see a lot of live music in NYC at a time when I had very little money). I also got to meet a lot of people, all kinds of people.

When I moved to Seattle nearly a year after 9/11, I had no job and knew only one person there. The very first thing I did was sign up with a volunteer organization. I volunteered while I searched for a job. I found my first job through a man who owned his own company, when volunteering at an American Heart Association Gala event. After that it was rarely through my employment that I met the type of people I connected most with, it was through volunteering or going to shows and meeting and hanging out with people who liked the same things I liked and cared about the same things I cared about.

I am disabled now. I live far from my friends who mostly live in Seattle or New York. I am unable to work. I can no longer drive and can no longer do about 80% of the things that I used to love doing and did often (like walking, for example). I live with my retired mother. I have a progressive, degenerative neuromuscular disease that will kill me. I am in pain 100% of the time. My life looks nothing like my friends' lives or my sister's life or anyone, anywhere, whoever they are, who is able bodied, able to live where they want, able to work, able to drive, able to walk around, go to shows, grab coffee with a friend on whim, or have someone over to Netlfix and chill. You get the point.

I still have a good life (even though it is hard and not at all what I thought my life would be like at the age of 47), a comfortable life, and my mom and I enjoy our life together, and yeah sometimes it's really hard and bad and not fun, but not all of the time. We live on far less than our wealthy neighbor who has more money than we have ever seen in our lifetime (or will) and far less than most people imagine they could comfortably live on and enjoy their lives. You know what my mom and our neighbor bonded over? Art! And now our neighbor hosts a weekly art making event at her place, with my mom and other friends, and they all sit around and paint and talk and share a potluck meal. I am invited, too, but I am not interested so I stay at home and allow my mom to enjoy that time with her friends.

If none of this resonates with you, my only other thought is to work to make more money, save more money, and have more money so that you can have the money and the material things that you feel you are missing out on because you don't have them. Whether or not that makes you happy is entirely up to you.

Betrayed by those he had loved and trusted in addition to constant binges to mask his pain, his last years were plagued by a succession of strokes that left him paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.At age 47, Curly was placed in a nursing home due to his declining health and the inability of his family to take care of his needs. Due to mental deterioration, Curly became problematic for the nursing staff and his family was advised to commit him to a mental hospital. Moe adamantly refused the physicians’ recommendations, ultimately sending his brother to the Baldy View Sanitarium in San Gabriel, California. This was Curly’s final living facility, where he died bedridden and alone in January 1952 at age 48.
Curly carried his heart on his sleeve and was generous to a fault. He drank heavily, blowing nearly all his income on wine, cars, dogs, and houses.However, his greatest weakness was women.
Given his immense insecurity, he unknowingly allowed himself to be taken advantage of in return for companionship. Following a marriage annulment at an early age, Curly embarked on a succession of unions with binge drinking and eating in between.In 1945, he married Marion Buxbaum, a divorced blonde with a 10-year-old son. The marriage was turbulent, and Curly spent a fortune on jewelry and fur coats in an attempt to keep her happy—but to no avail.
They divorced nine months later in a very public and bitter legal battle.Soon after, Curly’s health rapidly declined as he fell into his old habits. His obesity worsened as did his hypertension, leading to retinal hemorrhages and ultimately a stroke.

You just need to know, even though Portland is pretty cool for American standards all the city's are going to shit with young professional narcissists, and status quo America? Where consumerism and consumption are the religions of the people, fuck this place , move to Thailand, or Argentina or New Zealand, get out there and away from this war mongering capitalist shithole.

Nuff cutnpaste! CR for president! May I share this intelligence with my network? Wake up and Unite.

Rager phonic for vice Pres!

I mean fish oil! God damn this shit is confusing!

@345👍👍👍

Money may not buy happiness, but its a good start! Lack of money, however, does tend to lead to depression. You just gotta figure out how much is enough for you.