Misery, it seems, loves company. How much less depressing life is if everyone is having a hard time, indeed, look no further than Communism to see how everyone being miserable together is still seen by some as preferable to people getting on and succeeding as a result of their own efforts.
The bigger question for me (sitting here in London) is when will the US consumer snap out of their present mood and once again begin to shop? James -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of John Cunningham Sent: 01 October 2001 18:25 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Disaster Raises Happiness, Trust I think I recall also reading somewhere that suicide rates dropped markedly during both the Great Depression and WW II. John At 11:43 AM 10/1/01 -0400, you wrote: >A lot of Soviet citizens, similarly, (retrospectively) claimed they were >happiest during World War II, when something like 1-out-of-8 perished! >-- > Prof. Bryan Caplan > Department of Economics George Mason University > http://www.bcaplan.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > "Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we > ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught > books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what *they* > thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of > light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the > lustre of the firmament of bards and sages." > --Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
