Hierarchy of Needs

I know I have no right to judge anyone base on how they feel of things but these questions are really bugging me since I was in high school. Up to now, it is still unresolved. I have figured out things to answer it but I know that my answers are too one-sided.

A lot (I said A LOT! Not ALL) of Filipino films and telenovela are depicting poor people as happier than those who are richer than them. The poor family, having nothing to eat, is bonded and doing their shares inside the household with smiles on their faces and respect with their mother and father. On the other hand, the rich family has everything and yet they barely have quality time together, the mother will meet her amigas, the father is either too busy with his work or with his queridas while their children are free to roam around the city and do whatever they want. If we think about it, these depictions might not be true. It can be just a media tool to pacify the poor in our society - To give them an edge compared to the rich; the poor are depicted as happier than the rich.

Another thing I notice is this: the cliché statements "Eh ano kung mahirap lang tayo… masaya naman tayo" or "Hindi natin kaylangan ng pera para maging masaya." might just be statements of "sourgraping" by the poor. How can one say that he is fully satisfied and happy when in fact he/she did not even know if he will still survive the hunger that's been bugging him/her for days? How can one beggar sleeping on the sidewalk, fearing that his life might be taken by some rugby boys be happier than the man sleeping in a five-star hotel pent house? How can one, deprive of all the basic needs in life, deprive of the security that the government should give him, be happy and satisfied when in fact, according to Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, one needs to fulfill his basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing and security first before advancing into the next stages and before achieving happiness and satisfaction which is placed, if I am not mistaken, on the top of the pyramid? Survival comes first before anything.

No matter how many times people say that money can't buy everything and that the best things in life are free, at the end of the day, one will always seek to be richer in order to be happier. In the first place, the basic needs in order to survive require one to have money.