Debate Club – Friday 14th October

By Oliver L (Year 13)

Topic: “This house believes that money brings you happiness”

Before the half term Debate Club discussed the relationship between monetary wealth and happiness. This saw members take a deep philosophical dive into what constitutes happiness and then use different forms of evidence to argue whether money was a blessing, curse or simply irrelevant.

The proposition, led by Gabe H and Ronnie S, opened up the debate by arguing that in the realities of a capitalist society, money brings you the basic human needs that are necessary to achieve a good standard of living and thus happiness. The opposition presented a different picture by pointing out the limitations and evils of money. Ammar F argued that money is a limited and finite thing that can’t change important facts about life such as family and mortality, while Toby M and Thomas N raised examples of celebrities with lots of money who committed suicide such as Kurt Cobain.

The proposition responded strongly with Adam H citing polls and academic literature to argue that there is a strong global correlation between the wealth of nations and the life satisfaction of their citizens. This argument was developed by Johann G who argued that while money itself doesn’t create happiness, it may be used to gain access to opportunities that allow individuals to be happy.

Counter arguments to this include Toby’s use of Buddhist religious philosophy to argue that true fulfilment is created emotionally not materially. Both teams performed extremely well but in the end the proposition were declared the victors because of their broader use of arguments.