It is easy to regard someone who is wealthy as content, even fulfilled, and without serious hardship. In today's society in particular, those without wealth are sometimes resented because of the belief that they have no "real" problems. Director Lauren Greenfield would discount that belief. In fact, one of the claims made in Greenfield's documentary The Queen of Versailles is that having wealth does not automatically make one person better than another. Greenfield contrasts Mr. and Mrs. Siegel, in all of their lavish wealth, against their friends, family, and employees, and the result is blatant: whereas the Siegels are very wealthy, they lack the humility, class, sense of fulfillment, and positive morals that the people around them possess. In other words, the Siegels are wealthy but are otherwise no better, if not worse, than the people around them who are not wealthy. Their wealth does not solve all of their problems.
I strongly agree with Greenfield's claim about wealth and happiness, particularly because I've seen evidence of her claim in my own experiences, observations, and readings. The first thing that comes to my mind is the ever growing list of sayings that all essentially say the same thing: money cannot make you happy. Everyone from Benjamin Franklin to Nelson Mandela have warned of the falsified satisfaction money can provide. I cannot help but believe that Greenfield's claim must be true if only because of its large number of wise supporters. In a way, Greenfield is supporting the claims made by the various people who came to the same conclusion before her.
Additionally, I have experienced the validity of Greenfield’s claim in my own life. The satisfaction I get from getting a new item is never as great as the satisfaction I get when I am in the company of people I enjoy, or when I perform an act of kindness, such as volunteering. The immediate happiness from a purchase is fleeting; the only way to maintain such a happiness is to continually spend through what some might call an addiction. However, as with every addiction, the abuser is eventually numbed to what once brought them happiness. “Purchased happiness” must eventually run out, whereas interactive, non-stationary happiness can never be expended.
While Greenfield claims that wealth and contentment are not necessarily correlated, I might even argue that they are inversely correlated past a certain point. After that point, wherever it may be, as you become wealthier you also become less and else content with your life. For example, in the case of the infamous King Midas from Greek mythology, who could never find satisfaction from his wealth. Though he was wealthy, King Midas reached the point where enough was not enough, and eventually he dedicated himself to accumulating more wealth by wishing for a “golden touch” to turn everything into gold. His resulting wealth cost him everything he cared for, including his health, his daughter, and his happiness. Just as with the Siegels from The Queen of Versailles, wealth did not guarantee happiness and positive morals.
There are many cases in which wealthy people are not by any means decent, happy people. Regardless, there will always be people who believe that money is the necessary to achieve happiness, classiness, and positivity. Greenfield's The Queen of Versailles rightly claims otherwise.
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