by: Faith
If you were to ask people what they needed to be happy, two of the most common answers would be health and wealth. Both are definitely necessary for happiness. However, if you could only have one, which is more important? It is my opinion, health wins hands down. Firstly, health is more important than wealth because if you are physically fit, you will have a sense of well-being. That means that you will feel happy. Wealth does not necessarily do the same. Many people mistakenly think that they would be happy if they had a million dollars. They think that having more money will solve all their problems. On the contrary, it has been found that being wealthy can actually rob you of your peace of mind. Rich people suffer from more stress, anxiety, suspicion and unhappiness. Besides that, wealth is of no use without health. To understand this, we must look at why we gather wealth. The purpose of doing so is to be able to supply our daily needs and make ourselves happy by spending on luxuries. Without good health, no matter how much one spends on material things, that person will not be able to enjoy them to the fullest. For example, a person who is unwell would not be able to eat everything he wants to even though he could afford to buy the most expensive food. A person who is bedridden will not be able to enjoy vacations in exotic places even if he owned a private plane. Therefore, health is more important than wealth as wealth is useless without health. Another point in favour of health is that if you were healthy, you would be able to gain wealth. The reverse is not possible. If a person is healthy, he would be able to find work or carry out investments that could eventually make him wealthy. However, for a person who is wealthy but ill, even the best medical care that money can buy may not guarantee the return of that person's health. This fact alone is sufficient to support the view that wealth is less important than health. In a nutshell, health is indeed more important than wealth for the reasons explained above. Of course, the ideal situation would be to have both health and wealth. But if you had to choose, pick the one that gives you the greatest amount of happiness.
