Argument Against Money Creating Happiness By Carl Richards

Analysis of Argument Against Money Creating Happiness

Money can’t buy happiness, or so the saying goes. Determining the validity of that statement, however, is difficult because of how complex the topic can become. The trick is to view the situation objectively; “The Odd Relationship Between Money and Happiness” by Carl Richards did just that. He worked through points on both sides, and discussed whether he believed if a correlation between money and happiness could be found as simply as reading an online article. Richards’s argument, though logical, was not effective due to the poor use of rhetoric, only having a single premise, and a lack of discussion about his point of view.

Appeals

Ethos, pathos, and logos, the appeals to ethics, emotions, and logic, respectively, are some of the most effective tools a writer can employ. While pathos was not prominent in “The Odd Relationship Between Money and Happiness,” there was ethos and logos. The article began with a short description about Carl Richards, which established his qualification to discuss the topic by telling his audience that he was “a certified financial planner” (2010, para. 1). He continued to build credibility by

In his second to last paragraph, he acknowledged that linking money and happiness gives us a way to compare happiness, even though he stated in that same paragraph that there is no “unit of ‘happy’” (Richards, 2010, para. 12). The last point that he presented to his audience was a middle ground between the two sides. He made his final opinion on whether achieving a set salary number results in happiness, writing, “Maybe we just have to accept that happiness is more complex than that” (Richards, 2010, para. 13). This final paragraph left his argument open-ended so that the audience could decide for themselves whether a distinct relationship exists between money and