Jamie Baybutt

S. Fielding
Section 29
10/08/15
Can you put a price tag on happiness?
In the article Money Really Can Buy Happiness, Steve Maich uses multiple
examples of the rhetorical appeals to argue his side on the issue of whether or not
the amount of money a person has affects their happiness. To support his view, he
provides examples including personal experiences with this topic and he uses actual
statistics to authenticate his reasoning. The author argues that money actually can
buy happiness. He provides stories from people who argue against this belief but
then proves how theyre wrong. Maich believes that happiness is something that
can be bought in the sense that money can pay for things that reduce stress and
cause happiness. The rhetoric in Steve Maichs article and Jamie Baybutts PSA both
rely heavily on logos, pathos, and ethos to convince the reader that money can buy
happiness.
His use of the logos appeal makes his argument more convincing. The
statement Three years ago, the woman, who lives somewhere in England, won
$1.5 million in a lottery, provides a personal encounter with a mass amount of
money (Maich 1). He talks about this woman and her decision to not tell her family
about her winnings. She didnt want to tell her family she won the lottery because
she thought that it would negatively impact her family. Most people tend to believe
that money cant buy happiness and instead will deteriorate their lifestyle. Maich
provides this personal experience because this is a common belief among most
people. He argues this belief by using facts such as people in rich countries are

substantially happier, on average, than people in middle-income countries, who are

happier, on average, than people in poor countries (Maich 7). Another similar
statement is When we plot average happiness versus average income for clusters
of people in a given country at a given time, we see that rich people are in fact
much happier than poor people (Maich 11). These facts prove that richer people
are happier.
Maich compares rich and poor classes in the quote walking four miles
through a minefield to the nearest well, which may or may not be contaminated, to
fetch water for your children suddenly, the guy who clips his fingernails in the next
cubicle doesnt seem like such a big deal(Maich 8). This quote effects the reader
emotionally while also comparing the lifestyles of two different extremes. He then
says that people who live in poor conditions are definitely going to strive to be
wealthy so they can live a better and happier lifestyle. He uses more examples of
pathos such as His own brother tried to hire someone to kill him (Maich 18). He
refers to a story about a man who won the lottery, blew all of his winnings, and
ended up bankrupt which essentially ruined his life. He uses this source to support
his point that people who believe that wealthiness doesnt cause happiness typically
arent happy people to begin with. He then states that several of those other
things that make life worth living are inextricably linked to how much money you
have (Maich 12). This example of pathos comes from a paragraph that explains
how people who are rich tend to be healthier and have higher education because
they can afford it. This contributes to a persons overall level of satisfaction. If a
person is healthier then they will naturally be happier than someone who is
unhealthy and has medical issues.

Credibility is established through a few examples of ethos appeals throughout

the article. That was confirmed again in a study released last year by Glenn
Firebaugh, a professor of sociology and demography at Pennsylvania State
University makes the facts more believable since it was confirmed in an actual
study that was done (Maich 7). In the first sentence But the research proves the
opposite: the more you have the happier you are is another source of credibility
(Maich 1). Research was done to support all of the authors conclusions. This article
is realistic and believable because of all the different stories and actual facts he
uses. In paragraph 22, Maich references another study that was done on the
happiness level of lottery winners, and the result was that most people will feel a
significant amount of happiness after gaining a lot of money. He has incorporated
multiple different research studies throughout the article which helps establish his
credibility.

This PSA was made at 1:10pm

on Monday, October 5th. It is a
visual representation of the
argument presented in the
article. Happiness is
something that people pay
money for but may not realize
it. People spend thousands of
dollars to go on cruises or
vacations to extravagant
places because they reduce
stress and make people happy.

The author of this public service announcement is making the same

argument as Steve Maich. They both believe that money does have an impact on a
persons happiness in life. In the verbal argument, Maich defines happiness as a
feeling that comes from being financially stable enough to afford to eliminate things
that cause stress, anxiety, and depression. He states For most people happiness
comes from devoting less energy to chores and burdens, and replacing them with
more meaningful and rewarding pursuits family, friends, exercise, travel and other
restorative activities, (Maich 24). Traveling is a more common way of doing this.
Most people dont think of vacationing as a way of buying happiness, but that is
essentially what theyre doing. This PSA illustrates that people go on vacations to
have a good time and reduce stress, which is what Maich defined happiness to be.
Logos would be the dominant appeal for this visual argument. She uses facts,
such as the price amount of the Disneyworld trip to establish her point. The average
amount for a family vacation to Disneyworld for a week is around $3,500. The
majority of families have gone on some type of vacation at some point in their life.
She used this example to relate to most people including parents and anyone that
has gone on any type of vacation. Another form of logos would be the statement
that says Everything that makes us happy costs money, even just spending quality
time with the family. It is a reference to a quote in the verbal argument about
people spend money on activities that are fun and make us happy, such as
traveling.
The picture the author chose reflects the emotion of happiness which is an
example of pathos. She chose this image because everyone has a great time at
Disneyworld and at any vacation. The image is emotional in context which the price
and the title of the PSA. No one ever thinks of vacations as a way of buying

happiness, so when people look at it in that way it has an emotional effect. Ethos is
another rhetorical appeal that is seen here. The price is also an example of ethos
because its an actual amount that makes it more believable. The company logo on
the bottom of the image is another source of ethos because it provides credibility.
In both the visual and verbal argument, the same idea is being portrayed.
The verbal argument targets mainly people who are skeptics of the idea that money
can buy happiness. The PSA targets anyone that has ever gone on vacation.
Although both arguments are based off the same idea they do have their
differences. The verbal argument focuses mainly on why people are skeptics and
gives examples of them, while the visual argument focuses mainly on the fact that
people unknowingly pay for happiness. Both arguments effectively use the
rhetorical appeals to make their points. Although, the verbal argument is more
effective because of the extensive amount of facts and personal experiences. They
both effectively argue that happiness does actually come with a price tag.

Works cited
Maich, Steve. "Money Really Can Buy Happiness." Maclean's 119.7 (2006): 26.
MasterFILE Premier. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.