Money Can't Buy Happiness But It Can Buy Feeling Better

Forgive me, for a second, for introducing an economic policy into the meat of this post, but, it serves the point I am trying to make rather well. As most of you, I am sure, are well aware, one of the largest impediments to the pursuit of either; one's dreams, one's desire to travel, or even just one's desire to eat out every now and then, is a lack of money. We, as a species, have constructed a society in which a majority of people, based on numerous studies, both:

A) Dislike their job
and
B) Do not have their dreams come true.

While the job conundrum is a little harder to crack - after all, we're all consumers of the goods we sometimes get bored of producing, or the services we can't stand rendering, and until we limit or consumption, these things demand work - the dreaming conundrum might be a bit easier to solve. And in turn, this solution could solve some of part A, as well, since one of the largest and most common complaints about work are the hours one must spend working in the first place.

To wit, a form of universal income, which has broad support from economists on both the right and left, would give people more monetary means to pursue dreams of travel, or having a nicer car, or what have you, and/or would allow for a more stringent commitment to a 40 hour work week, as opposed to the 45 or so many Americans end up working instead. It seems, on a philosophical level, somewhat cruel to have constructed a society in which personal desires are so rarely met and so dependent on luck and the state of one's birth, but considering that the US has both the money and bureaucracy in place to extend a universal income to all citizens 18 or over, and could save money by doing so on the currently cumbersome and multi-faceted system of welfare and tax incentives we have now, one would think that this system could, perhaps, be implemented one day. And while this author fully expects it will, it will most certainly be several lifespans down the road, rendering any hope for the current day, as all things, entirely meaningless.