Jonathan Heim
Professor Campbell
UWRT 1104
April 3, 2017
Its 1989, a year that saw the most devastating oil spill in history, the Tiananmen Square
massacre, the Tokyo stock market crash, and also the beginning of one of the most ruthless, and
fraudulent stock market schemes of the time, the creation of Stratton Oakmont. Stratton
Jordan Belfort grew up in a modest apartment in Queens with an accountant as a father. Growing
up, Jordan got a taste of the luxuries of life and that instilled a will and a drive within him to
reach the peaks of life and wealth. With this drive within him, he quickly began using his talents
as a salesperson to start a meat and seafood business. The meat business quickly went belly up;
however, the man he met because of that failure, Mark Hanna, set the foundation for Jordans
future ethics and morals when conducting business. Mark Hanna was a senior broker at L.F.
Rothschild who mentored Jordan during his time at the company. Mark Hanna took Jordan out to
lunch one day and explained to him the keys to success in the stock game was cocaine and self-
pleasuring. Those types of morals stuck with Jordan who by 1989 had become a money hungry,
ambitious, drug abuser, who would do anything it took to reach the top. In 1989, Jordan founded
his own Brokerage firm, Stratton Oakmont, which he would use to launder and steal millions of
dollars from his investors. Stratton Oakmont thrived on drug fueled brokers, money hungry
individuals, and mottos such as My warriors, wholl not hang up the phone, until their client
either buys or dies. By December 1996, Stratton Oakmont had ceased operation due to many
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lawsuits and settlements because of fraudulent tactics. By 1999, Jordan had been sentenced to
four years in prison after a plea deal. Somewhere along the way to riches and wealth an honest,
ambitious young man lost his morals and ethics and became a greedy, unethical, drug addict who
stole millions from his investors. This seems to be consistent throughout much of society, when
individuals strive for wealth. Along the way wealth makes people lose their morals, become
addicted to drugs and money itself, and can often cause divorce and depression. With that being
said, wealth can be used for good and to better society too, so the question becomes, what are the
One of the most universally talked about effects of wealth is whether or not wealth can
buy happiness? To first analyze whether wealth can buy happiness we need to address a few
things when considering the definition of wealth. For my research, wealth will include not only
spendable cash, but also all possessions and assets. Most studies and articles argue that wealth
cannot buy happiness for two main reasons: first, because of relative income and second, due to
the fact that the pursuit of wealth is time consuming and exhausting. Bruce Headey, author of
Money Does not Buy Happiness: Or Does It? A Reassessment Based on the Combined Effects
of Wealth, Income and Consumption defines relative income or gains as Wealth of individuals
compared to those surrounding them and also states that that within-country relative gains in
economic well-being have only a very small effect on happiness. As an individual progressively
becomes wealthier, they tend to move into larger, richer, more upscale neighborhoods. Living in
an upscale neighborhood can show their wealth to outsiders and make an individual feel better
about themselves, living in a high class area. However, as time goes on people tend to compare
their possessions and spendable money to the people around them. This becomes a dilemma,
when the people that surround them are on about the same wealth level as they are due to the fact
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they congregated into a wealthy neighborhood. Being surrounded by the same wealth, makes
people feel as though they do not have much wealth, when in actuality, they have a lot compared
to the rest of the world. This causes people to not be happy with or even satisfied with their
wealth. Some people will then try to argue, why do rich people not just build large houses away
from others? This then ties into human nature, as humans we like to congregate and not be
lonely. A mansion in the woods sounds nice, but over time human nature will make individuals
feel isolated and long for something more and yet again lead to dissatisfaction and unhappiness
with their wealth. As people become unsatisfied and unhappy with their wealth they try to
acquire more to make themselves wealthier to beat the relative income hypothesis. That drive for
more wealth leads into the second reason wealth does not buy happiness, the pursuit is too time
The pursuit of wealth is one of the two main reasons that wealth does not represent
happiness. As people acquire wealth, they then try to get more and more and spend many of their
waking hours focused on money. Over time, the pursuit takes ahold of individuals and starts
affecting their relationships in the real world. People become more focused on acquiring a
material piece of paper then strengthening friendships and relationships that have been proven to
actually provide happiness in life. This process overtime leads to middle aged adults who have
acquired large amounts of wealth but have no one to spend it on or with. As stated earlier, this
then ties into human nature, it does not matter how much wealth an individual has if they have
no one to spend it with. Therefore, the pursuit of wealth, many times, leads more individuals
towards loneliness, depression and divorce rather than happiness. Carolyn Gregoire, author of
the article How Money Changes the Way We Think and Behave published in the Huffington
Post says There is no direct correlation between income and happiness. And Extremely
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affluent people actually suffer from higher rates of depression. Some data has suggested money
itself doesnt lead to dissatisfaction instead, its the ceaseless striving for wealth and material
possessions that may lead to unhappiness. Again a key point to note is that money itself does
not necessarily cause unhappiness but the non-stop pursuit of it does. Not only does the non-stop
pursuit of money cause unhappiness, it can also be a stepping stone towards addiction.
Jacqueline Curtis, author of How Money Can Change People and Affect Their
behavior not motivated by dependency on an addictive substance, but rather by a process that
leads to a seemingly positive outcome. Money can easily become a type of behavioral
addiction. There is no better feeling then seeing that paycheck at the end of a week, getting a nice
bonus, or getting a raise. Clinical psychologist Dr. Tian Dayton says She warns that the positive
feeling that follows obtaining money can cause a chemical reaction in the brain that feels good.
In turn, it can result in a severe preoccupation with money and put a strain on relationships
outside of those that relate to earning more. (qtd. in Curtis). The pursuit of money can very
easily lead to a behavioral addiction that causes individuals to only associate with people that can
feed their addiction and in turn negatively effects all other relationships. This addiction is another
reason why money itself does not necessarily cause unhappiness but the addiction to the pursuit
of wealth is one of the main reasons people see wealth as causing unhappiness or even
depression. Not only is money itself addictive, but there is a positive link between wealth and
Wealth does not necessarily cause substance addiction but there is a high positive
correlation between the two due to the fact wealthier people not only have the ability to afford
drugs, but have more opportunities to do them during leisure time. As well as having more
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money and opportunities the wealthy have been proven many times over to have a cloudier
moral compass and therefore drugs are not out of the picture. The wealthy also tend to think
about themselves more and therefore the high of drugs is going to apply to wealthy more because
they will not worry about the consequences it causes others. A 2008 UC Berkeley study in San
Francisco, found that where the law requires that cars stop at crosswalks for pedestrians to pass,
drivers of luxury cars were four times less likely than those in less expensive vehicles to stop and
allow pedestrians the right of way. They were also more likely to cut off other drivers (qtd. in
Gregoire). This study shows that wealthy people do not care as much about others and their
moral compasses are cloudier, allowing for the opportunity of drugs and addiction to creep into
their lives. Carolyn Gregoire writes in adulthood, the rich outdrink the poor by more than 27
percent. This statistic helps prove that the wealthy are more susceptible to substance and alcohol
abuse. Substance and alcohol abuse is found in affluent children as well. In fact, substance and
alcohol abuse is more prevalent in affluent children than affluent adults. Affluent children have a
distinct handicap that their parents do not, the ability to have wealth and not work. This large
amount of wealth with loads of free time can only lead to bad decision making in many
situations. On top of all of that, many affluent children face extreme pressure from their parents
to get into the best schools, make a lot of money, and be overall better than their parents. Carolyn
Gregoire writes that Kids from wealthy parents are not necessarily exempt from adjustment
problems and studies show that these children may be more likely to internalize problems,
which has been linked with substance abuse. (qtd. in Gregoire). Even though wealth has been
linked to addiction, immoral judgements, depression, divorce, and studies prove that it cannot
buy happiness, people still strive for wealth. After all those negative effects of wealth why would
One of the key arguments for the effects of wealth is based on how an individual views
life. Many people view life from a very capitalistic and materialistic standpoint and these are the
types of attitudes that lead to all the negative effects above. The way to break through the barrier
and find the positive aspects of wealth is to approach life from not from a materialistic view but
from a simple life standpoint. A simple life standpoint, is the view in life where people embrace
the little things and live not only for themselves but for the benefit of others. It is consistently
seen through research that the individuals who are happy with their wealth are those who not
only would be happy without it but also are willing to donate it to the less fortunate. Brady
Josephson, author of Want to Be Happier? Give More. Give Better. Published in The
Huffington Post, writes that when you make a donation to charity, your brain acts in a similar
way to when you are having sex or eating chocolate. and In a study on charitable giving when
people donated to a worthy cause, the midbrain region of the brain lit up. This is the area of the
brain that is responsible for our cravings (food and sex) and pleasure rewards, showing the link
between charitable giving and pleasure. These studies go to show that we are hardwired as
human beings to give back to the community and help out our neighbors. Another great place to
see the effect of charity is Forbes. Forbes website is littered with articles on the amount of money
raised for charities and the feeling those individuals felt afterwards. Forbes article Combining
Charity and Capitalism: MyBucks Spreads Financial Services Across Africa written by Doug
Bandow is a great piece relaying the ideas behind the potential wealth can have in changing the
world. The amount of change these companies can deliver to underdeveloped continents like
Africa are limitless and the joys the individuals working at these companies receive from helping
the lesser fortunate is priceless. That is why, finding the good effects of wealth are simple: if an
individual can value the simple things in life and give back to the community they are destined to
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be happy wealthy people. Wealth also has many practical purposes, money makes up most
arguments in less fortunate families, so with wealth comes less arguments about money. Also
with wealth comes the ability to do all the things in life that an individual has wanted to do, and
if one pairs the satisfaction of completing a bucket list with the happiness one receives from
giving back, that is a perfect formula for a successful and well-rounded happy life. The ability to
not argue about money, spoil loved ones, do all things an individual desires to do material wise,
and be able to give back to the community are all good effects of wealth. The key to achieve
these good effects though is to enjoy the simple things in life; therefore, one is less likely to get
sucked in the addictive void of acquiring money. If one can avoid the addictive power of money
and give back to the community, the potential wealth can have on their happiness in limitless.
The effects of wealth are great on both sides of the spectrum. The line dividing both sides
is thin and whether and individual will experience the good effects or the bad effects all depends
on how they view the world and how they are willing to use their wealth. Anyone is capable of
being consumed by the addictive power of money and in the process lose their morals, abuse
drugs and alcohol, and face depression and divorce. On the other side anyone is capable of
giving back to the community and enjoying the simple things. Which will allow for their
relationships to thrive and allow for less arguments about money, give them the ability to spoil
loved ones, and also the ability to do or experience almost all things in life. Happiness and
wealth are many times intertwined but at the end of the day true happiness is first determined by
how individuals conduct themselves, and how they interact with others and the community.
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Works Cited
1. Curtis, Jacqueline. How money can change people and affect their behavior. Money
Does It? A Reassessment Based on the Combined Effects of Wealth, Income and
Consumption. Social Indicators Research, vol. 87, no. 1, Springer Netherlands, 2007,