"If you think money can't buy happiness, you're not spending it right" (Norton).
Michael I. Norton is a marketing professor at Harvard University. He attended Princeton University; there he earned a PhD in Psychology. He has published a large number or academic journals and peer-reviewed articles including Science, one of the most popular and revered journals. Dr. Norton conducted a research called “The IKEA Effect: When Labor Leads to Love,” which appeared in the Harvard Business Review in 2009. He gained popularity after giving his TEDx Talk speech: “How to buy happiness.”
In his TEDx Talk “How to buy happiness,” he highlights that money can indeed buy happiness, and those who claim that money causes depression or unhappiness are not spending it on the right things. In addition to this, he emphasizes that one should contribute to society in a pro-social way, instead of being anti-social or selfish with it. In The Great Gatsby, money plays a large role in the morals that brought up the main characters. For example, Fitzgerald notes that “’Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.’” (1). This indicates that members of a higher social class are taught that they are exclusive and different from the lower classes. However, Norton opposes this and believes that wealth should be shared and proportioned. Although Dr. Norton does not address many counterarguments, he does speak about the worldwide experiment he led in over 100 countries. In all countries with the exception of one, participants felt happier after spending their money in a prosocial way. This clearly proves Dr. Norton’s claim and opposes the mentality seen in The Great Gatsby.
I agree with Dr. Norton’s assertions because if the higher class of society decides to be anti-social with money, there will be a widening gap between the high class and the low class, ultimately disintegrating the middle class.
"The specific way that you spend on other people
isn't nearly as important as the fact that you spend on other people"