Money can't buy Happiness but does it have to buy Misery?

Money can't buy us happiness but why can it buy so much misery?

As I finished "Sold" by Patricia McCormick a question was constantly going up in my mind.   Why can people (especially the women that were part of the business of the sex trade) watch these poor girls like Lakshmi be treated so and not only that but PROFIT FROM IT? Like Mumtaz, the owner of the brothel in India that Lakshmi was sold into or Auntie Bimla, the woman who took Lakshmi to the brothel, how do they, especially being women themselves, not feel bad or guilty? How can they go on without doing anything to help these girls and not only that but take money from this brutal trade? I thought about it for a while since I would never be able to become such a heartless monster but then I realized that there is one thing that could make one do such things. Money.

Why is it that the thing that we all strive to have and that we all want, also capable of bringing so much cruelty to those who get it? Shouldn't those who already have so much realize how fortunate they are and NOT do such horrible things to people? How can a word so simple as G-R-E-E-D take away a word so complex as H-A-P-P-I-N-E-S-S? "Money can't buy happiness", is true but it is powerful enough to change people into evil beings. Perhaps since money and riches is what can buy what we want, people do whatever it takes to get what it can bring without caring what it has taken away. Its just a piece of paper and yet it has the ability to manipulate those who are too weak to use their conscience to resist the urge of getting these "pieces of paper". It is even worse to see that these people who are so rich can still want so much more while sometimes, like in the case of Lakshmi, those who are less fortunate can have such simple pleasures and already be content (ex. Lakshmi, before she was sold, would already be glad when she got a sweet cake). If one can want something so much, why is it that when they have it, the object will be of so little value that one would already have moved on to wanting more?

Look in front of you. Look past the mask of want and see through the eyes that we were born with. The pair that sees joy in a movie or in happy times with our families. Not everything needs to be golden or sparkling with gems to have value. We have a roof, food that makes us warm and full, parents and siblings that love us, so why can we not see that we are already millionaires, millionaires of joy and prosperity? Personally I think that if one was to see their fortune for the gifts they have always been, they would feel more happiness than having all the money in the world. Its nothing but a bill, a piece of plastic at most, can those things compare to the hearts of those who care for us? Even a bar of gold, can that ever beat a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter day? If one sees the true joys in life, it would be realized that cash isn't one of them. Its true that you need money to buy that hot chocolate I was mentioning but look at those who don't have that luxury. They still manage, they still feel joy, so what are we to complain that we want more?

 Life is a gift by itself and at the end it doesn't matter how much money we have. We can't bring it with us but what we can is the happiness that has been given to us by treasuring what truly matters.

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